5 Strategies for Keeping Your Business Strong Through the Holidays

There’s no fighting it at this point. The Halloween 70% off items are long gone and the shelves are overflowing with holiday candy, gifts, and decorations. The tree lots are being stocked and the stores are fully adorned in red and green, with Santa Claus cutouts to greet you at the door.

Even if you’re Nordstrom, which has a long-standing policy of not decorating for Christmas until after Black Friday, you can’t deny that the world is awash in Christmas spirit. 

What this means for most solo or small businesses is that it’s time to wind down the year, take a break, and start planning for how you’re going to come on bigger and better next year.

But slowing down for 6-8 weeks during the holiday season is a mistake for a couple of reasons. 

First, for most of us, this is the time of year we’re spending more money than usual. So it hardly makes sense to bring in less money when you’re out spending more.

Second, chances are you have little to no competition from now until the end of the year, so why not take advantage of that and be one of the few businesses that is reaching out to people?

Of course there’s a reason people take time off right now, especially parents. We want to spend more time with friends and family. More time shopping and baking and addressing cards. More time listening to Christmas music, relaxing, and contemplating New Year Resolutions.

The nice thing is, with just a little extra effort on your part, you can make December your best business month of the whole year. It won’t require 40 hour work weeks and pulling all nighters to fit everything in.

Just a few well-planned strategies will allow you to take the time off you want, as well as grow your business. Here are five simple strategies you can start implementing before you put the Thanksgiving turkey in the oven.

1. Send a Personal Greeting

Don’t bother with the stock Christmas cards that come with some generic, impossible-to-offend greeting and your signature conveniently pre-printed on them. 

They may go on the mantel with the other cards, but they’ll be quickly discarded on January 1, without having made any real impact.

Take the time now to send a more personal greeting. Depending on your client and prospect base, it may not be realistic to send a handwritten message to everyone, but concentrate at least on your most valuable clients.

This is a great time to thank and re-engage former customers, and to get to the top of mind with your hottest potential clients. 

Choose a card that looks unique, if possible. Most businesses will send a green card with “Seasons Greetings” written in gold on the outside, and “Wishing you joy throughout the holidays” on the inside. These are boring and scream, “I’m trying to be spiritually-correct and non-offensive to all.”

You have to decide here. If you love Santa and celebrate Christmas, does it matter to you if you send  a card that represents this and two or three people blacklist you because they’re offended?

But if you’ll go with something that represents your personality, doesn’t look like it’s one of 5000 identical cards that was sent to all your customers, and contains a non-generic handwritten line or two, you’ll find the recipients especially responsive to your other holiday marketing efforts we’re about to go through.

2. Offer a Discount on Advance Purchases

You don’t want to spend your holidays working, and your customers may not need or have time for your services over the holidays. 

Come up with a solution that works well for both of you. 

Offer a discount if they buy now, receive a voucher for future services, and can redeem that voucher any time throughout the coming year.

Yes, they can wait until they’re ready for you in 2019. But if they do, they’ll pay 20% more. You get the money coming in now, they get the discount on something they’ll need later. (Just remember to budget and plan for the fact that you’ll be providing the service later without the money coming in!)

3. Put Together a Personal Holiday Video

No matter what your religious beliefs are, the holidays are the perfect time to get personal. People crave a feel-good, human story around this time.  

And there’s no better way to connect personally than through video.

It doesn’t have to be professionally done, and thinking that it does is what will keep 99% of your competition from doing it. 

In fact, it’s better if it’s not perfect, that’s what makes it personal.

Consider a behind the scenes video of how you manage your business (which can be quite funny for moms!), a story about your family’s holiday traditions, or even a sneak peek at how you plan to serve your customers in bigger and better ways in 2019.

No, you don’t have to be in it, but if you’ll get over yourself for just a minute and at least make a little personal appearance, your audience is bound to love it as much as you hate it.

Post the video on social media and send it to your email list. Send it personally to those you really want to reach.

4. Plan Your Social Media

Rather than just disappearing, or posting some random obligatory pictures of the school play, your fresh-cut tree, and your best attempts holiday baking, keep your business hat on by creating content now to either post manually or, better yet, load into Buffer (or the service of your choice) for automatic posting while you shop, bake, and wrap.

Yes, it will take some extra time now, but it will be so worth it. 

Remember, people are likely spending a little extra time on social media sharing pictures and stories. If they see you out there joining in the fun, they’ll remember you, and their know/like/trust for you will grow.

Make sure you set aside a few minutes to respond to comments, and engage, but that’s the easy stuff compared to content creation.

Also, pay special attention to Pinterest. Everyone goes there for some type of holiday inspiration.

5. Open Some Time on Your Calendar

Yes, we’ve already decided you don’t really want to work over the holidays, but could you do just 5-6 hours a week those last two weeks in December?

Sure you could if it meant going into the New Year with no Christmas debt!

Open up your calendar for new client calls or consults or whatever is relevant to getting you business. Maybe it’s just a check-in session, or a jumpstart to 2019 where you brainstorm the New Year and how you can help your prospect be more successful.

The point is, you’re going to be the only one talking to your client or potential client during this time. And a lot of people have some extra time off around the holidays, a lot are planning for 2019 right now. It’s the perfect time to establish you as the one who’s going to help with whatever product or service you provide.

If nothing else, it’s going to make you memorable, which is half the battle in business.

Planning is the Key to Profitable, Stress-Free Holidays

You wouldn’t sit down on Wednesday night and start meal planning and making your grocery list if you were serving Thanksgiving dinner for 20 the next day.

Don’t take a “fly by the seat of your pants” approach to your marketing either and December can be your best month ever, and can set you up for an easy flood of business after the New Year.

It’s easier to connect over the holidays because most people aren’t, and when you’re getting personal, a little bit goes a long way. You don’t need a complicated marketing funnel to make a significant impression.

Take an hour to think about your unique business and your unique story. These five ideas will get you started, but what personal, yet simple, ways can you come up with to keep your business strong over the holidays without sacrificing your holiday cheer?

As you hopefully know by now, if you want mentoring for your entrepreneurial journey, Kids Party Characters owner Cheryl Jacobs may be able to help.

Cheryl started out as a single mom needing to feed two small kids, and has now had a hand in starting 10 different businesses. 

To help cut out the learning curve and meet the time constraints most moms have, Cheryl has created a unique opportunity that allows you to have your own Kids Party Characters business, complete with all the resources Cheryl used to grow her business to six figures.

In addition to an exclusive territory in which to book parties and the right to use our 200-plus costumes, you’ll also get step-by-step training from Cheryl on how to set your business up for quick profits.

Book a free, no-pressure chat with Cheryl right here and she’ll answer all your questions and get you on the right path.

Learn more about the joy we bring to children’s parties by connecting with Kids Party Characters on Facebook for daily updates, including our best tips for building a successful business while raising happy and healthy kids.

5 Ways to Cure Imposter Syndrome in Life and Business

Imposter syndrome, it can be a silent killer, with hidden symptoms that are often hard to uncover.

The good news is, it’s completely treatable and you can have a happy, healthy life and business even if you never totally get rid of it.

What is Imposter Syndrome?

Even if you’ve never heard of it, if you have unfulfilled dreams, and you sometimes feel stuck and uncertain as to why you can't make it happen for you, chances are one of the things that’s holding you back is imposter syndrome.

It’s a little but powerful voice in your head that says, “Who are you to think you can do that?” 

It creeps in quite often when we’re about to do things out of our comfort zone, things that open us to judgment, things that put our greatness on display.

And just when we convince ourselves, “I can do it!” a wave of resistance comes crashing down upon us, threatening that “if you dare take that chance, everyone’s going to see that you’re a complete fraud and have no idea what you’re doing or saying.”

It keeps people from starting businesses, it keeps struggling businesses from bursting through to success, it even keeps moms from making confident parenting decisions based on gut instincts.

If any of these situations describes you, you likely have at least a mild case of imposter syndrome:

If you want to start a business, but you haven’t, for “reasons.” 

If you have a business but can’t get consistent profits. 

If you’re a mom and not sure you can juggle a business and properly raising your kids.

How to Burst Out of Imposter Syndrome

As we’ve discussed, imposter syndrome isn’t always like having a cold. You don’t have the obvious runny nose, constant sneezing, and overall crummy feeling throughout your body.

So even if you’ve never found yourself saying, “I want to do this, but I’m afraid everyone will see that I have no idea what I’m doing and will run me out of town,” try these five cures and see if they don’t help clear the path to whatever dream you haven’t made reality yet.

1. Be Honest

As a mom, you most certainly already have supermom syndrome, that crippling belief that you have to be all things to everyone, and that having three loads of laundry sitting unfolded on the couch while serving boxed mac and cheese for dinner means you’ve failed as a mom.

As a new business owner, supermom syndrome makes it harder because we already feel like we aren’t getting things right in life.

Now maybe you have that one friend that is supermom, but chances are, at least 99% of your friends and peers are in the same position you are. 

Do you find yourself commiserating with your mom friends about how you feel constantly behind and struggle to keep up? And do they share your struggles? 

Of course they do. And the same goes for business.

When you’re talking and writing about and marketing your business, be honest as if you were talking to a friend. 

Share what you know, what you’ve learned, what your successes are, but don’t be afraid to admit you’re new, you’ve made mistakes, you’re constantly getting better with experience, but you’re well short of perfect.

Many people fear they’ll chase clients off if they appear less than a well-polished, professional “expert” in their business.

But quite the contrary. People will relate to you, appreciate your honesty, and want to give you their business when they can see you’re being real with them. 

2. Be Conscious of the Highlight Reel

A common origin of or contributor to imposter syndrome is social media. 

You’ll look at what others post about their perfect lives and successful businesses on Facebook and Instagram and feel like you are not worthy of having a business like they do because your life is filled with hiccups, and your attempts at entrepreneurship are falling short.

But remember this about social media. People use it as the highlight reel of their lives. 

They leave their marital problems, kid’s school suspension, and business launches that brought them no sales on the cutting room floor.

Don’t let social media comparisons affect you, ever. Many, many allegedly “successful” people fill their newsfeed with half-truths and/or outright lies. 

Another wise move you can make on social media is to search for the truth-tellers. There are Facebook groups out there where people keep it real. 

Use the search bar to discover relevant groups and join a few. Leave the ones that are full of hype, and make connections within those who share your journey.

3. You Don’t Have to Be the Teacher

Take care not to set the standards too high for yourself. You don’t have to be Gandhi or Jesus to be a leader. You don’t have to be the top expert in your industry to have a business that helps others.

Think of it in terms of school. Maybe you’re a fifth grader and you can help those that are at the third grade level.

Sure, there are others in your industry that are at the college level, and they can help the high schoolers. 

But guess what, they might just be too far ahead of the third graders, who would prefer working with you and benefit  more from it.

And in business terms, the college level businesses may be too expensive for your third grade client.

So don’t sweat it if you’re new to your industry, there are people out there who need you.

4. Do the CV Exercise

There’s another interesting thing about imposter syndrome. People tend to misdiagnose themselves with it.

That is, they fear they’ll be exposed as a fraud or someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing, when they’re actually more than qualified to be a leader in their industry and to have a thriving business.

When you feel a case of imposter syndrome coming on, when you’re having a little self-doubt, sit down and create your CV or resume.

This doesn’t have to look fancy and formal as if you were really applying for a job. Just take out a pencil and piece of paper and write down everything you know about your industry and about running a business in general. 

All the training, experience, knowledge you have.

Chances are, you’ll find you don’t have time to write everything. And if you run out of things to write quickly, chances are you’re selling yourself short.

For example, when it comes to owning your own Kids Party Characters business, the fact that you have kids is pretty much the equivalent to having an M.D. if you wanted to be a doctor!

So don’t underestimate yourself. If you do this exercise honestly, you’ll come out of it feeling like the expert that you are, and knowing what areas you need/want to strengthen to grow your business even bigger.

5.  Find a Mentor

Finding a mentor is one of the best ways to cure imposter syndrome.

Your mentor has been there, done that, and has undoubtedly dealt with her own bouts of imposter syndrome. 

If fact, even if your mentor is a millionaire with a successful business, imposter syndrome may still creep up on her now and then.

Remember we talked about in the beginning how you can still have a mild case of it and live a healthy, happy, and successful life.

Your mentor can talk you through imposter syndrome.

She can assure you that you’re on the right track, can guide you to make the best decisions, and can help you regroup when things don’t go as planned.

Kids Party Characters owner, Cheryl Jacobs, has seen the value of mentoring in her journey as an entrepreneur, and it’s one of her favorite ways to give back and help others discover the joys of business ownership like she has.

If you could use a little help curing imposter syndrome and making your goal, idea, or dream of running your own successful business a reality, take a look at the great opportunity Cheryl has put together after thinking about how she could best help other moms who want to work at home.

Cheryl is offering memberships in Kids Party Characters that give you your very own business, including an exclusive territory in which to book parties, the right to use out 200 plus costumes, and access to our casting director and acting coach.

You’ll also get step-by-step training from Cheryl on how to start your business the right way, so no experience is necessary.

Learn more about this opportunity and get all your questions answered by scheduling a no-pressure chat with Cheryl right here. Make this your first step in curing imposter syndrome and clearing the path to the life you want and deserve.

Want to know more about KidsPartyCharacters.com? Connect with us on Facebook for daily updates on the magic we bring to children’s parties, as well as our best tips and strategies for building a successful business while raising your kids.

How to Build a Trusting Relationship With Your Child

Imagine your college-aged child calling you on a Friday night, telling you he’d been drinking and asking for a ride home. 

While this may stir up some mixed emotions, the initial feeling would probably be one of pride that he was responsible enough to make the call, and that you’d developed the kind of trusting relationship that would have him calling upon you in this situation.

Relationships of trust like with this our kids don’t happen overnight. They take a lifetime to develop, and can be shattered in a big moment, or a series of small moments over time.

Just about everything we do weighs one way of the other on the trust scale, so it’s important to be aware of all of our actions and how they might unwittingly affect this crucial part of our relationship with our child.

From our side of the fence, it’s easy for the trust factor to get off to an innocently bad start. 

Kids inherently want to please their parents. When they’re young, a “white lie” to avoid our disapproval is common and often dismissed as not a big deal.

And while you do have to keep it in perspective, it’s important to end even the white lies while your child is young and before they develop into a pattern of increasingly more important lies.

The most obvious part of a trusting relationship is honesty. Today we’ll look at six more areas that can help you build a relationship of trust with your child from the moment he’s born.

1. Spoil Your Baby

One of the biggest myths out there is that a baby becomes “spoiled” if you show her too much attention. 

On the contrary, responding to your baby’s cries is the first step to building a trusting relationship. 

When your child is a baby, you are responsible for meeting 100% of her needs. Whether she’s hungry, wet, uncomfortable, in pain, or simply bored, pick your baby up when she cries.

Maybe you’ve missed this stage and didn’t get it perfect? No worries, just concentrate on meeting your child’s needs and helping her to learn to meet her own needs as that becomes age-appropriate. 

Always respond to your child with love, and let her know in all situations, no matter what’s happening or how bad it seems, you love her. 

2. Seek and Value Your Child’s Opinion

Making your child feel like he matters will go a long way in establishing trust. 

As much as we’re on the go, we often have few opportunities to talk with our children. Be conscious about creating such opportunities.

Whether it’s in your head that you commit to talking with him for 10 minutes every day after school, or it’s a more formalized family meeting every weekend, focus on communicating with your child every day.

Ask his opinion on things, and even if it can’t always go his way, explain why you chose a different route. 

The important think is to have open communication and give your child choices whenever possible.

3. Keep Your Word

As a parent, it’s often tempting to pacify your child for the moment by making a promise for the future.

It can be something as simple as, “No, we don’t have time to get ice cream today, we’ll do that next week.” Before you say that, stop to consider whether you can and want to realistically schedule that in for next week, because kids have a sharp memory for things like that!

You don’t want your child justifiably declaring that you always promise “later” and consistently fail to deliver.

It’s best to avoid making promises unless you’re 100% sure you can keep them, which can be tricky when you have the type of schedule most families operate with.

If you need to put something off, be more general about when you’ll get to it. And if you say you’re going to do something, do it.

Back to the point about communication, there will be times you can’t do it, despite your best intentions. Take a moment and explain why it didn’t work out and commit to making up for it.

4. Establish Consistency and Routines

This one is a good complement to keeping your word. The more you have routines and consistency in your child’s life, the more she’ll be able to trust what’s going to happen throughout the day, or in any given situation.

Every day doesn’t have to look the same, but having a good morning and evening routine is helpful.

You can also have routines for how things are done. For example, when you say, “Let’s get ready to leave,” that may mean clean up your toys, put on your shoes, let the dog out, whatever . . . 

Establishing consistent patterns of behavior and actions is the foundation for a trusting relationship as your kids get older and things get more complicated.

5. Don’t Involve Your Child in Your Lies

You know you’ve told a lie that “didn’t really matter” before. We do this without thinking as adults. We like to refer to these little lies as “excuses” oftentimes.

But when your child hears you tell a friend on the phone you’re too sick to meet for lunch today, and in fact you’re not sick, that sends him a message that you’re a person he can’t trust. 

How does he know your next words to him will be truthful?

And certainly never try to save a buck by getting your child to represent himself as being a younger age so he can get into an event or restaurant for a cheaper price. It’s not worth the dollars you’ll save, and kids don’t have the ability to determine which lies are “harmless.”

Of course, sometimes it’s okay, if not even better, to lie. Your best friend already got that new haircut she loves. No reason to tell her how much you hate it when she asks.

As your child gets older, you can help him learn about the “good lie” but he’s going to need to be pretty mature to understand the difference.

6. Own Your Mistakes

As you’ve undoubtedly figured out, you’re going to make mistakes.

Instead of trying to hide them, gloss over them, or makes excuses for them, fess up and apologize. 

Letting your child see that you were wrong and took responsibility for it helps her trust in your word and your decisions, knowing that you’ll own it if you’ve done the wrong thing.

It also makes you a good role model for your child, encouraging her to be honest and accountable when she makes mistakes.

Trust is the Cornerstone of a Good Relationship

Building trust with your child is a key factor in establishing a solid life-long relationship with her. If she knows she can trust you, even when she is angry or upset with your decisions, she will still respect you and know, at least on some level, that this too shall pass.

Not only will trust be the foundation for a positive relationship between you and your child, but it will help her develop other solid relationships with spouses, partners, co-workers, and friends.

If you’ve found value in this post, make sure to connect with Kids Party Characters on Facebook, where we share daily updates on the magic we bring to children’s parties, as well as our best tips and strategies for raising happy and healthy kids.

And when it’s time for your next party, head to KidsPartyCharacters.com, where we have over 200 of the most popular characters waiting to become the special guest at your child’s party. We also have packages that include party favorites such as cotton candy, face painting, and balloon twisting.

Can’t find a Kids Party Characters in your area? Considering starting your own! Owner Cheryl Jacobs has a great opportunity for moms that want to work from home and experience the joys of having a children’s entertainment business.

No experience is necessary, as Cheryl offers step-by-step training and all the resources you’ll need to get started. Get the details and set up a free call with Cheryl right here to get all your questions answered.

10 Easy Ways to Find Great Content for Your Business

One thing that often scares new business owners or potential business owners is that, in the online world, you’re going to have to create content as a way of marketing your business.

When you own a brick and mortar store, you have some instant advertising just by the fact that people drive and/or walk by your storefront every day.

Some will try you out, and they’ll tell their friends about you.

Because there are millions of websites out there, you have virtually no chance of people just “happening by” your online business. And there certainly won’t be enough to earn a living.

Build and they will come does not apply to your online business.

So how do you advertise and gain customers?

If you have a healthy budget you can always use Facebook, YouTube or LinkedIn Ads. You can even use good old Google Adwords to help your business be seen by people doing relevant Google searches.

But paid advertising is not only expensive, there’s a huge learning curve to it, and even when you get it right, you’ve got to be constantly testing and tweaking things to keep it right and keep your costs down.

A  big budget and a lot of time are two things work from home moms don’t usually have in the beginning. (And let’s face it, we haven’t had a lot of time since our little angels arrived, and won’t until they’re at least 18!)

The best way to advertise your business then is going to be through writing content that brings your prospects to your website, or blog, or Messenger inbox.

While most of us have a thing or two we feel like we can write about, the thought of writing something every day, or even every other day, may leave you thinking you have no idea what to write about a week into your business, and certainly not a year or two in.

Even the most prolific writers among us get stuck or lack inspiration every now and then.

Fortunately, because the internet is so crowded, there are really an unlimited number of places where you can find content.

Instead of throwing you out there and saying, “Just search the internet and content ideas will come pouring in,” today we’ll look at 10 of the best places you can go on the internet when you’re looking for ideas of what to write about, whether it be on your blog or social media posts.

1. Google News

Google News is an easy place to find trending stories that gives you a lot of options for personalization.

You can look at the top headlines from around the world, just your country, or even locally. In addition, you can follow topics and come up with your own searches to target stories that would be relevant to your market, then save the searches to check in on every day.

Don’t just look for things that would teach your audience about your market or be industry-specific stories.

You can take a trending story and use it to grab readers’ attention, then relate it or compare it to something relevant to your business. 

For example, one of today’s big stories is about celebrities who have lost their homes in the California wildfire. You can lead with how you were reading about this and it got you thinking about what really matters in life, or about dealing with loss, or rebuilding, or whatever theme you want to pursue, and make your point from there.

2. Google Alerts

As the site says, Google Alerts allows you to monitor the web for interesting and new content.

You set up alerts for specific terms or topics, and Google will send you a daily email summarizing the web pages, newspaper articles, blogs, and other content it finds that matches your search terms.

You can quickly browse through the results once a day, and fill your head with content ideas based on what’s out there.

3. Google/YouTube Autocomplete

You’re probably figuring out that Google is an extremely resourceful place when it comes to finding content.  Here’s one more from Google.

When you go to the Google search bar, or the YouTube search bar, and start typing, you’ll find a dropdown menu that offers suggestions for autocompleting what you’re beginning to type.

This is a great resource because it not only gives you ideas, but its ideas are based on what’s being searched for in Google and YouTube, so you know people are looking for content on the topic.

You’ll also want to scroll to the bottom of the Google search results page where you’ll see “Searches related to [whatever term or phrase you’ve searched for]."
 This will give you more ideas, and again shows what people are searching for. 

4. Social Media Groups and Hashtags

Chances are you’re on social media anyway, so keep a notepad open and write down questions you see being asked in Facebook groups, as well as topics that are being discussed a lot in groups and in your newsfeed.

Search relevant hashtags on Instagram and Twitter and see what’s getting a lot of attention.

Twitter has a “trends for you” section that shows popular hashtags and topics based on who you follow and what your interests are.

Twitter search is also a goldmine where you can enter any hashtag or topic and find what people are saying about it on Twitter.

If you’re thinking, “I’m not on Twitter, that’s old news,” it’s time to rethink that if you’re interested in growing your business.

5. SlideShare

You may not have heard of this one, but SlideShare is another site that’s full of gems.

Owned by LinkedIn, SlideShare is a hosting service that allows you to “share what you know and love through presentations, infographics, documents and more.”

It has a search bar for you to enter your relevant terms, and also shows what’s trending in social media, daily top headlines, and featured and trending slideshows.

The bonus factor with SlideShare is that you’ll see a lot of quality content here that’s put together by users who are influential in their fields. There’s no sifting through questionable or down right bad information.

6. Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo is expensive, but the good news is you may never need to purchase their pro plan.

You can use the search bar at the top of the website for free, and it will give you 10 articles related to your search, which is more than enough to get the ideas flowing in your brain. 

The articles are ranked by how much social engagement they’ve gotten on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Reddit, as well as how evergreen the content is, so you can be sure you’re talking about something people are engaging with.

Buzzsumo does a lot more than this, and you may find it worth $79 a month when you hit the big time, but the free version is still incredibly helpful.

7. Popular Quotes

Simply going to sites like GoodReads and BrainyQuotes and browsing popular quotes will give you plenty to write about. 

You can either use the quote, and talk about what it means to you, how to put the advice into practice, or why the quote is wrong, or you can not even mention the quote and write about what it brings to mind for you.

8. Amazon Bestseller Lists

Head over to Amazon.com and use the search bar to find the hottest books on a topic that’s relevant for you.

The book titles themselves will often provide what you need for content ideas, but if you really want to go deep, click through on a few of the books and read the reviews people have left to find out what people are saying on the topic and what questions you can answer.

9. Idea Generators

Recognizing that being stuck on what to write is a common problem, some companies have created software with the sole purpose of giving you ideas of what to write on.

There are several out there, but not all of them are great. Here are two you’ll find good results with:

Hubspot Blog Topic Generator

  

Portent’s Content Idea Generator 

Simply enter your keyword, and these tools will pop out headline ideas for you around that keyword.

10. Your Story

One mistake a lot of people make is thinking they don’t have the expertise it takes to write content for their business.

Truth is, people can find “how to” content all day long. And while it’s helpful, what really engages people is stories they can relate to, be inspired by, or learn from.

Make sure you’re sharing your stories. Stories of struggles and successes, of lessons learned, mistakes made, victories had.

And they don’t have to be all business stories. You won’t have a lot of those to start with. Personal stories go a long ways towards building the know, like, and trust factor that turns prospects into customers. 

So yes, it’s possible that sharing your stressful day and plan for recovery could make someone totally relate to you and want to buy whatever you’re selling.

Finding Your Search Terms

As you’ve seen, most of these ideas require you to have keywords or search terms to begin with. 

These are simply broad topics that your audience is interested in that are relevant to your business. Some are probably obvious, but you’ll develop a continuously better understanding of your perfect search terms as you gain more experience.

And of course, if you have a mentor in your business, she can help you cut down this learning curve and speed up your path to profit.

If you’re just starting out, or even still in the idea stage of wanting to have your own business, take a look at the great opportunity Kids Party Characters owner Cheryl Jacobs has put together for stay at home moms, or those wanting to stay home with their kids and still generate an income.

Cheryl is offering memberships in KidsPartyCharacters.com that allow you to have your very own business using all the tools she’s used to take Kids Party Characters to a six-figure business.

You’ll get an exclusive territory in which to book parties, the right to use our 200 plus costumes, access to our acting coach and casting director, as well as step-by-step business training from Cheryl on how to get started the right way.

Schedule a free, no-pressure chat with Cheryl right here and she’ll answer all your questions about this fun and rewarding work at home opportunity.

Want to know more about Kids Party Characters? Connect with us on Facebook for daily updates about the magic we bring to children’s parties, as well as our best tips and strategies about being a successful work from home mom.

How to Turn Superheroes Into Positive Role Models

Here at Kids Party Characters, we’re always on the lookout for what’s new and popular with kids. It’s our goal to make sure every child that comes to KidsPartyCharacters.com finds his or her favorite character to invite to their next party.

As you probably know, we recently added Black Panther, who quickly became a kid (and adult) favorite after the popular movie was released.

Today we’re excited to reveal yet another new superhero costume, Ant-Man. Just like Black Panther, there’s nothing “new” about Ant-Man, who first made appearances in Marvel Comics publications in the early 1960s.

Today’s kids are seeing a lot of Ant-Man, who was featured in his own film, titled Ant-Man, in 2015, and has since gone on to appear in the popular movie Captain America: Civil War in 2016, in a series of animated shorts on Disney XD in 2017, and again in Ant-Man and the Wasp in 2018. Word is he’ll appear again in another Avengers film in 2019.

Ant-Man has the standard superhero qualities of superhuman strength and agility, but what really makes him “cool” is his size-shifting abilities. He can go from the nearly microscopic size of an ant, up to 100 feet tall, and maintains his strength even when he’s in his shrunken state.

Of course Ant-Man uses his powers for good, dedicating his life to solving crimes and stopping criminals.

The Problem With Superheroes

Kids, and many adults, love superheroes. Let’s face it, as a mom, if they made “Supermom” a movie and gave us a hero who could have all the laundry done, and folded and put away, have a dinner everyone liked timely prepared every night, get everyone to practice on time, and run her own successful business at the same time, we’d all have her poster hanging on our wall.

The downside to the fact that even adults wear Captain America and Flash t-shirts is that, when they go to make a move about our favorite superheroes, it’s going to be too violent for many kids, especially the younger ones.

Why the violence sells is a question for another day, but clearly it does. You don’t see Thomas the Tank Engine’s stories in any multimillion dollar movies.

While our favorite superheroes are all good guys (and a few gals) who use their exciting powers to fight the forces of evil, they do it with a level of violence that should make you uncomfortable if you’re the parent of a young child.

One study of preschool aged children showed that kids who were really into superheroes tended to be more aggressive, but unfortunately did not show evidence of picking up on the purpose behind the aggression. 

In other words, the kids who were especially attracted to superheroes were not more likely to stand up for and defend their classmates. 

The Parent’s Dilemma

The positive role models that are portrayed by our superheroes may be getting lost in the commercialism that has the heroes working their magic through such violent means.

On the extreme end, some parents choose to keep their kids away from superheroes. But this is not the easiest, or the best, choice. 

First, unless your child lives in a bubble, he’ll likely get some exposure to superheroes whenever he’s around other kids. 

There’s a good chance that this will cause him to want to watch superheroes on TV and start his own collection of superhero toys. 

Denying him that entirely tends to backfire and actually increase his interest. We all want that thing we can’t have, it’s human nature.

Second, superheroes can teach kids positive lessons in a way that's fun and engaging. 

A story about how your child’s favorite superhero saved the day will sink in a lot deeper than a lecture you try to give on how important it is to be nice and helpful to people.

On the other hand, we need our kids to learn that there are much better ways to “save the day” than through beating people up or shooting them.

How to Make the Best Out of Superheroes

There’s no perfect solution here, but as always, the best thing you can do as a parent is to engage with your kids and stay involved in their play.

1. Preview the Movies: Resist the urge to set your kids in front of the TV to watch a superhero movie alone. At the very least, watch the trailer and read the reviews about the movie first. 

Pay attention to the PG-13 ratings many of these movies have. Just because your four year old loves Spider-Man doesn’t mean she should be watching Spider-Man the movie. 

She shouldn’t. She doesn’t know enough about the difference between fantasy and reality at that age.

2. Talk About the Superheroes: When your child expresses interest in a superhero or develops a favorite, talk to her about the positive characteristics that hero has.

Talk about how your child’s favorite superhero would handle real life situations based on the hero’s special powers and abilities. Use the superheroes to teach life lessons that involve positive solutions without violence.

In other words, get your child to develop a picture in her mind of her superhero using its powers in non-violent ways, rather than how they’re portrayed in the movies.

3. Buy the Toys: Let your child have a collection of superhero figures and accessories if she wants. As she gets a little older, introduce some of the comic books, especially the older ones that contain a lot less violence.

If your child owns her own figures, she has the ability to tell her own stories with them. If she tends to run around punching everyone and blowing everyone up with her superhero, show her other ways she can play with Batman and Wonder Woman, and how they can team up to help clean the house or assist with a younger sibling. 

Your kids have an unlimited imagination. If you encourage gentler play with the superheroes as they use their powers to fight evil and promote good, your child will have no trouble coming up with different narratives than the movies are showing.

Let Kids Party Characters Help

Invite your child’s favorite superhero to his next birthday party and we promise there will be no violence! Our A-list actors will leave your child feeling awestruck over how magical and kind his special hero really is.

You can view our entire collection of superheroes at KidsPartyCharacters.com, and choose the package that's right for your child, including kid favorites like cotton candy, face painting and balloon twisting.

Be sure to join us on Facebook too, where you’ll find daily updates on the magic we bring to children’s parties, as well as our best tips for raising happy and healthy kids.

How to Make Stress Your Friend

Today is National Stress Awareness Day (as is the first Wednesday of every November, in case you want to keep track).

While many of these “national days” of awareness of something seem nonsensical (national handwriting day, grilled cheese day, and pig day come to mind), National Stress Awareness Day is a good reminder to stop for a minute and check in on your stress and the impact it’s having on your life.

According the the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, seven out of ten adults in the United States report experiencing stress or anxiety daily. Most feel that it interferes at least moderately with their lives.

And unfortunately but not surprisingly, the amount of stress many of us are feeling seems to be on the rise each year.

Why Stress Matters

Pretty much everyone would agree that stress is part of life. Maybe there was an easier time “back in the day” when some people could live stress-free, but since that’s no longer possible, we’ll talk in a minute about how to embrace the inevitable and use it to your advantage.

Even though you can’t avoid stress, it’s super-important that you monitor how much you have and work to reduce it.

It’s kind of like sugar. It’s in everything these days, making it nearly impossible to completely eliminate, but over-consumption can lead to serious health problems.

Similarly, too much stress leads to heart disease, high blood pressure, heart attack, obesity, diabetes, and a compromised immune system. 

Stress can also lead to significant mental health problems that can be just as debilitating as physical problems, such as depression, anxiety disorder, and personality disorders.

You’re likely watching your diet and avoiding unhealthy activities like smoking and excessive drinking as a means of taking care of your body, but are you likewise monitoring your stress levels?

How to Make Stress a Good Thing

Since working to eliminate stress in our lives would simply be too stressful of an undertaking, let’s look at how to make stress your friend.

If you compare the road of life to the road your car drives on, you’ll see how stress is actually helpful.

When you’re driving, you’ll often see “warning signs” along the road. 

For example, if a limited-sight intersection is coming up, there may be a “stop ahead” sign. There are “deer crossing” signs in areas with deer populations nearby, “road may flood” signs in low areas, and a series of big black arrows along the road to indicate a sharper than expected curve is ahead.

Without those signs, there would be more accidents. The signs help us drive safer.

Stress provides the warning signs for life. The signs that, if we heed them, allow us to live a happier life, make fewer mistakes, and better choices.

But it only works if we tune in to our body rather than blindly rushing through our day with a singular goal of getting to the end of the day without anything tragic happening.

It’s common to cover up those warning signs and just drive through your day fingers crossed that there’s no train approaching, no pedestrians ahead, no nasty curves that will cause us to crash.

But just like we’re grateful for those signs warning us of sharp curves ahead, we should be grateful for the times we feel stress. 

Because it’s signaling that it’s either time to change, or time to take some preventative measures -- to slow down -- if you will.

Instead of accepting and dismissing stress as a part of your life, act on it.

If you’re heading to lunch with a friend and it always seems like a stressful undertaking, it’s time to re-evaluate that friendship. 

If getting to church on Sunday morning is stressful, it’s time to look at whether you’re at the right church, or serving the right role in that church.

You get the picture. When stress appears, evaluate change you can make to reduce or eliminate it.

Strategies for Coping With Stress

Now before you get any ideas on how you'll plot to get that stress-inciting co-worker fired, or drive that noisy neighbor out of her house, let’s acknowledge that some stress can’t be eliminated.

We can’t remove the curve in the road, but we can make it easy to navigate by slowing down. And that’s exactly what we need to do when we encounter stress that’s just part of life.

Be warned that your reaction to these five strategies for coping with stress might be, “well that’s rather obvious.”

The good news is, coping with stress isn’t hard. The truth is, most of us just don’t take the time to do it. 

So whether you’re in a stressful situation and can take a little break, or preparing for a stressful day, or coming off a stressful day, pick one or more of these stress-relieving solutions to keep you on track, or get you back on track.

In fact, just incorporating these activities into your daily routines can help turn what would normally be a stressful situation into something you handle with ease.

1. Exercise: If you’re thinking you don’t have time to exercise, then you’re mistakenly thinking exercise requires buying a gym membership and some cute little matching outfits.

Exercise can be done at home, at work, outside. Wherever you can get your body moving and get your heart rate up for 20 minutes or more.

Exercise causes your brain to produce endorphins, which make your body and your mind feel better. This leads to better sleep and overall cognitive functioning, which can reduce stress in the first place.

2. Human Connection: Technology is destroying the amount of human connection we have. It’s easier and faster just to text someone, and less bothersome to send an email than to play phone tag. 

Making phone calls is likely at the bottom of the list of things you do with your phone.

This lack of human connection, other than just doing business, may be responsible for some of the increased stress in our lives.

Make it a point to talk to friends, not just about your problems, but about the good, the fun, the joys in life too.

This can be on the phone, FaceTime, or even better — in person. 

If you’re coming off a stressful event, try having a chat with a friend. Not to rehash and rant on the event, but to come back to your happy place.

3. Go Outside: There’s something about being outside that’s good for the soul.

Even if you’re busy around the house or office all day, make it a point to take 15 minutes to be outside, whether you’re just sitting or taking a walk. 

When weather conditions are extreme, you might shorten your time outside, but still get there. If nothing else, you’ll suddenly feel better when you come inside!

As often as you can, make your outside time in an area where you can have some contact with the sites and/or sounds of nature. 

4. Read a Book: Even if you haven’t read a book since your high school teacher forced you to, give this one a try. 

Choose whatever fiction you’re attracted to — a steamy romance, thrilling mystery, or classic western — and allow the author’s gift of storytelling to be your escape. 

Reading is an especially good stress-reliever at the end of the day, when you can immerse yourself in a story that entertains and relaxes. 

You’ll sleep better coming off a good chapter from a book than you will mulling over the stresses of the day.

5. Music: Music sets the tone for a good day, and provides a nice pick-me-up when you get in a funk. 

Develop a couple of playlists for different moods. A calm, relaxing set of music for when you need to take a breath, and a “get pumped” list for when you need some motivation.

Music has proven effects on the brain, and like exercise, causes the release of dopamine, a chemical that makes you feel good. 

You don’t have to listen to a certain type of music to experience these benefits, it just has to be something you enjoy.

Music is always a great option because you can put in your headphones just about anywhere and enjoy a little stress relief.

Wrapping Up

Hopefully you’re inspired to be more conscious of the stress you have in your life, the ways you can avoid it, and the ease in which you can cope with it.

You’ll find that it doesn’t take much, if any, additional time to reduce stress, it just involves a few changes in how you think and in your daily practices.

And before you’re tempted to say, “I just don’t even have five minutes to practice that stress-reducing activity,” remember that it will almost certainly make you more productive and more focused, thus actually saving you time in the long run.

If you’ve found some benefit in this post, make sure to join Kids Party Characters on Facebook, where we share daily updates about raising happy and healthy kids, as well as our best strategies for successfully working from home with kids around.

Also visit KidsPartyCharacters.com when it’s time to book your child’s next party. With over 200 characters to choose from, and packages to fit every need, we’ll take the stress out of your party planning and leave your child and her guests with a lifetime full of memories.

And if Kids Party Characters hasn’t come to your area yet? Consider starting your own!

Check out the great opportunity owner Cheryl Jacobs has for stay at home moms, or those looking to stay at home, to have your very own fun and rewarding business in the children’s entertainment industry.

Princess Ariel with How to Take the Overwhelm Out of Starting Your New B...

How to Take the Overwhelm Out of Starting Your New Business

Have you been thinking about starting a work from home business?

If so, what’s holding you back from taking the plunge into entrepreneurship?

For most new and aspiring business owners, feelings of overwhelm hit before they even take the first step into setting their business up.

After all, what even is the first step?

While the financial and time freedom rewards of home business ownership sound great, the gap between those and where you stand today can often feel too wide for you to ever bridge.

Fortunately, there are some simple strategies you can implement when starting out that will keep you from feeling too overwhelmed to move forward.

Start With and Stick With a Proven Model

One mistake people often make when starting out is thinking they have to come up with something totally unique to sell in their business, and new and exciting ways to get people to buy it.

In reality, the opposite is true.

While it seems like having no competition would be a good thing, truth is the only way to have no competition in your new business is to sell something nobody wants.

For obvious reasons, that’s not a very good plan.

Yes, you will have competition, but when you go into business with a product or service that’s in demand, and choose methods to market your business that are proven to work, just know that you have a winning combination.

You don’t need all the customers, and the demand is certainly enough to allow for one more business, especially because you’ll be doing things right.

At Kids Party Characters, we have a proven model that has brought owner Cheryl Jacobs great financial success.

Kids love having their favorite characters show up at their party.  And Kids Party Characters has the widest selection of characters to choose from, and puts on the best show you’ll find in the children’s entertainment business.

With experience, Cheryl’s learned the best ways to market the business, which is made even easier by the number of repeat customers we have and the high referral rate.

Recognizing what a great opportunity this is for new business owners, Cheryl decided to offer memberships to KidsPartyCharacters.com.

Membership allows you access to everything we already have at Kids Party Characters, as well as business training, and an exclusive territory in which to book your own parties.

If this sounds like it might be the kind of proven model you’re looking for to confidently get your new business started, set up a call with Cheryl here and she’ll answer your questions and walk you through whether this is your perfect starting point.

Take it One Customer at a Time

Of course the lifeline of your business is customers. It makes sense when you’re in the planning stage to worry about, "How will I get customers?"

Strangely, just as big of a worry can be, how will I handle all the customers I can potentially get?

You are, after all, just one person working from home.

The key here is to just focus on getting and serving  one customer at a time.

No, one customer isn’t enough to sustain your business, and no, you can’t handle all the customers you’ll eventually need by yourself.

But if you’ll focus just on bringing one person through your virtual door you can avoid the overwhelm that comes with, how will I find all the customers I need, and how will I serve them when I do find them?

You may not make $10,000 your first month, but even the businesses that are now making $10,000 a day started with just getting one customer.

And when things do get bigger than you can handle by yourself, you can learn about outsourcing and hiring virtual staff. But you don’t need to cross that bridge today.

Implement One Marketing Strategy

Another thing that can feel pretty daunting for new business owners is having the time to market your business the right way.

As you start studying marketing, you’ll learn about social media marketing, email marketing, direct mail marketing, paid advertising, funnel building . . . and all sorts of things that may sound like a foreign language to you.

And undoubtedly, there will be people telling you how you must implement certain types of marketing to make your business successful.

But the fact is, you can’t — and fortunately don’t need to — implement all of these strategies from day one, or ever.

How do you decide which strategies you’ll use to market your business?

First, choose one strategy that’s been used successfully by others in your market and start there. Just one.

And yes, you’ll be feeling like you’re not doing enough, but you are, and you can always add more when you get the one mastered and running without a lot of effort.

Second, make sure the strategy you start with is one you enjoy. 

Since you’ll have several to choose from, pick one you know you can do and actually enjoy doing. If you go into it trying to use a method you hate, you’ll have a hard time being consistent or good at it.

Learn the Value of Imperfect Action

When you start your new business, just like when you start anything new, there’s a lot you don’t know how to do, or at least don’t know how to do well.

And you’ll worry about getting things just right because of a fear that you’ll fail if everything isn’t perfect.

Trying to get something perfect that you’re still learning and that in reality no one gets perfect, will overwhelm you into paralysis. 

New businesses fizzle out or never get started every day because the would-be entrepreneur is too afraid to take steps forward that aren’t perfect.

A character trait that every successful business owner shares is a willingness to take imperfect action. To put your best effort out there and either learn from failing or just keep improving on what you perceive as not good enough.

Live by the motto that “done is better than perfect” and you’ll take a lot of pressure off yourself, as well as make a lot more progress in your business.

Be Careful Who You Listen To

One of the most common causes of overwhelm for new business owners is the amount of competing advice you get when starting your business.

You think you’re doing the right thing by doing lots of research, maybe even buying lots of courses on how to run a successful business from home.

And while learning how to be successful is much better than just going in blind and hoping for the best, there’s so much advice available from so many different successful business owners — and those who claim to be successful but really just want to sell you something — that it often keeps you from progressing.

Today you’ll take two steps down path A, learn something different tomorrow and take three steps down path B, and eventually find you’ve started down 10 paths but haven’t gotten anywhere.

When finding a business mentor the number one thing to look for is someone you can relate to, someone who’s walked in your shoes, and who you can see yourself being like in the future.

Instead of trying to combine and choose from different advice from a countless number of teachers out there who are vying for your attention, pick one primary mentor, and take your advice from her. Then if you need to know something that goes beyond her expertise, she can refer you to a trusted source based on her experience.

If you’re a stay at home mom looking for a work at home opportunity, Kids Party Characters owner Cheryl Jacobs may be the perfect mentor for you.

Cheryl was once a young, single mom who desperately needed a way to provide for her family. Since those lean times, she started 10 businesses and successfully runs three businesses today.

Cheryl has a passion for mentoring other moms, which prompted her to start the membership program with KidsPartyCharacters.com.

If you think Cheryl may be the mentor you need to help cut out your overwhelm and fast track your business to success, schedule a free, no pressure call with her right here and get that dream business going today.

Also be sure to connect with KidsPartyCharacters.com on Facebook where you’ll learn more about the wonderfully satisfying business of bringing magic to children’s parties, as well as get updates on how to be successful in your own work from home business.