Small Biz Mama: Recent Episodes
Kristin L. Ingram
We are busy mamas who love our kids and would do anything for them. We are the home-based businesses that make this country move. We support our clients, our families, and our communities while working hard every day to remember to also care for ourselves.
We crave knowledge to create a better business. We may have support or we may not, but we always get the work done. Our businesses may technically be small but our ambitions, actions, and attitude are huge. We never show fear, even if it sits on our shoulders all day.
We are hopeful for the future. We are strong. We are smart. We are resourceful. We are Small Biz Mamas.
Learn how a notebook will help you sleep better at night. I'll share what I use mine for and how that has helped me sleep better at night.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 80 on smallbizmama.com
Topics:
- A notebook will help you sleep better at night
- Use your notebook to help you sleep better at night during your wind-down routine
- To sleep better at night -
- Do a brain dump
- Write down three things you are grateful for
- Write down three things you like about yourself
- To help sleep better at night, keep your notebook on your nightstand
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com *****
https://smallbizmama.com/a-notebook-to-help-you-sleep-better-at-night/
How weekly planning gave me my life back. Learn what you need to take into account when doing your weekly planning.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 79 on smallbizmama.com
Topics:
- How weekly planning gave me my life back
- What is weekly planning?
- Questions for weekly planning:
- What's happening next week?
- What am I planning?
- What do I need to plan for dinner and lunch?
- What other things do I need to include in my weekly planning?
- Set your big goals for the week
- What do I want to do with my family?
- Weekly planning allows you to craft the life you want
- Spend some time on weekly planning
- Weekly planning helps you know in advance what's going on
- You don't need a complex system for weekly planning
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com *****
https://smallbizmama.com/how-weekly-planning-gave-me-my-life-back/
Too many toys? Here are some alternatives for this holiday season that will help you, your family, and others.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 78 on smallbizmama.com
Topics:
- Too many toys? Here are some alternatives for this holiday
- Have a place for everything
- Rotate toys out
- Too many toys? Might be time to donate some
- Other alternatives
- Take an inventory of what you already have
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com *****
https://smallbizmama.com/episode-78-too-many-toys-here-are-some-alternatives-for-this-holiday/
The most important thing I learned from meditation is to begin again. Find out why this is so important.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 77 on smallbizmama.com
Topics:
- The most important thing I've learned from meditation
- Go back to your focal point
- Failure is an opportunity to learn
- Begin again
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com *****
https://smallbizmama.com/the-most-important-thing-ive-learned-from-meditation/
Learn how to stop things from falling through the cracks. These are the systems I use to be more productive and never forget things!
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 76 on smallbizmama.com
Topics:
- How to stop things from falling through the cracks
- How to create a system to stop things from falling through the cracks
- Using a digital calendar to help stop things from falling through the cracks
- Use your digital calendar for reminders for your work with clients
- Systems that help so things do not fall through the cracks
- Trello and Asana
- Key components needed to help things not fall through the cracks
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com *****
https://smallbizmama.com/how-to-stop-things-from-falling-through-the-cracks/
Are you stuck on figuring out what kind of business retirement plans are available for small businesses? I share what plans are available. Here are essential tips to help you pick out your business retirement plan.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 75 on smallbizmama.com
Topics:
- Business Retirement Plans
- Three questions to ask yourself when setting up a business retirement plan
- How do you set up business retirement plans?
- What options do you have for business retirement plans
- Taxes and business retirement plans
- Common business retirement plans for small businesses
- IRA - Individual Retirement Account
- Simple Plan or Simple IRA
- 401K or Roth 401K
- SEP - Simplified Employee Pension Plan
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com *****
https://smallbizmama.com/business-retirement-plans/
It's time to update your schedule for fall and the holidays. Doing this will make sure you know exactly what you are doing and get stuff done.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 74 on smallbizmama.com
Topics:
- Update your schedule for fall and the holidays
- Three things that you need to update your schedule for fall and holidays
- When you update your schedule you need to manage expectations
- Anchors in your day
- Avoid this biggest mistake when you update your schedule
- How to make your weekly planning easier
- Update your schedule for holidays
- Look at your schedule for the rest of the year
- Know your why when you update your schedule
- Deep work
- Work your business around your life
- Reward yourself for your hard work
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com *****
https://smallbizmama.com/time-to-update-your-master-schedule-for-fall-and-the-holidays/
In order to be more productive and become less distracted throughout the day, try my three favorite low-tech productivity solutions to get more things done.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 73 on smallbizmama.com
Topics:
- Low-tech productivity solutions
- Low-tech productivity solutions #1
- Work on paper throughout the day
- How I use my Full Focus Planner
- What else does the Full Focus Planner have?
- Low-tech productivity solutions #2
- Using paper helps you be more productive
- Low-tech productivity solutions #3
- Using the Pomodoro Technique
- Three low-tech productivity solutions to help you get more things done
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com *****
https://smallbizmama.com/my-favorite-low-tech-productivity-solutions/
Facebook isn't the only game in town. There are many great places for finding new networking opportunities. Some are online and some offline. I also share many organizations where you can find people to network with. And also how to avoid this biggest mistake
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 72 on smallbizmama.com
Topics:
- Great place for finding new networking opportunities
- Online networking opportunities
- Finding new networking opportunities locally
- Business owners are everywhere
- Think of new ways to seek out new business
- Finding new networking opportunities with connectors
- Avoid the biggest mistake when finding new networking opportunities
- Maximize your networking opportunities
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com *****
https://smallbizmama.com/great-places-for-finding-new-networking-opportunities/
Your life is not a balancing act. It's more of a juggling act. What you are doing is figuring out what is important and making decisions through that lens.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 71 on smallbizmama.com
Topics:
- Your life is not a balancing act
- Your life is not a balancing act, it's determining what is most important to you
- What is going to get you closer to what's important to you?
- Your life is not a balancing act. Acknowledge what's important.
- Your life is not a balancing act, but you do have a mission in life
- What to do when you have conflicting things
- Look through the lens of what's important to you
For the complete show, notes go to smallbizmama.com *****
https://smallbizmama.com/your-life-is-not-a-balancing-act/
Parenting in the new reality means making decisions as to what you want your life to look like for you and for your family. Be intentional. Enjoy your days.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 70 on smallbizmama.com
Topics:
- Parenting in the new reality
- What parenting in the new reality means to me
- Switching gears in this new reality
- My schedule
- Spend time figuring out things while parenting in the new reality
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com *****
https://smallbizmama.com/parenting-in-the-new-reality/
Whether you have a brick-and-mortar or an online business, learn what I predict are the trends for business in the new reality.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 69 on smallbizmama.com
Topics:
- Business in the New Reality
- Predictions for business in the new reality
- Business trends going forward
- Schedule meetings virtually for your business in the new reality
- Digital business will still be a thing for business in the new reality
- Family-style meals
- Virtual conferences for business in the new reality
- Advanced child tax credit
- Entertainment with business in the new reality
- Local businesses in the new reality
- Online networking
- Local Networking for Business in the New Reality
- Millennials and business in the new reality
- Online service providers
- Business in the new reality is both national and local
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com *****
https://smallbizmama.com/business-in-the-new-reality/
As you work on defining your ideal life in the new reality, I'm sharing things that we are doing and things we are letting go of to create our ideal life.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 68 on smallbizmama.com
Topics:
- Your Ideal Life in the New Reality
- Four questions to ask yourself when thinking about your ideal life in the new reality
- My ideal life in the new reality
- Make sure you take time to celebrate when thinking of your ideal life in the new reality
- Your kids and your ideal life in the new reality
- Be willing to pivot
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com *****
https://smallbizmama.com/your-ideal-life-in-the-new-reality/
Do this exercise to help you in designing your post-COVID reality. Be very intentional when choosing what you want to do, especially as seasons change.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 67 on smallbizmama.com
Topics:
- Designing your Post-COVID Reality
- As you're designing your post-COVID reality, don't get caught up in thinking you need to do everything
- Think about what you can let go of when designing your post-COVID reality
- Exercise for designing your post-COVID reality
- What do you love and hate?
- What can you get rid of when designing your post-COVID reality?
- How can you use this information in designing your post-COVID reality?
- Be very intentional
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com *****
https://smallbizmama.com/designing-your-post-covid-reality/
Learn how to make your service-based business stand out. I'll share tips on how you can focus on the customer experience so you can stand out.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 66 on smallbizmama.com
Topics:
- How to make your service-based business stand out
- In order for your business to stand out, focus on the client experience
- What does the initial contact process look like?
- In order for your business to stand out define what you're going to talk about during the initial call
- What does your proposal process look like?
- What does your contract and payment process look like?
- In order for your business to stand out, have a clearly defined onboarding process
- Create your "How I Work" document
- Define what your process looks like if you aren't getting what you need from your client
- In order for your business to stand out, create standard operating procedures
- What can you learn from the mistakes in your business?
- When things go wrong, contact your client immediately
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com *****
http://smallbizmama.com/how-to-make-your-service-based-business-stand-out/
Learning to sell with Renee Hribar. Through her passion for selling, Renee shares valuable tips on learning to sell in a way that resonates with clients.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 65 on smallbizmama.com
Topics:
- Learning to sell like a mother with Renee Hribar
- Who is Renee Hribar
- Learning to sell by connecting with people
- Learning to sell means going into buyer mode
- Learning to sell means being yourself
- Learning to sell means asking questions
- Learning to sell means speaking your customers' language
- Is there a difference in selling to women versus men?
- Learning to sell means speaking to your customer as an individual
- The biggest mistake people make when trying to sell their small business
- Learning to sell means asking great questions
- Learning to sell means spending more time listening than talking
- Is it possible to make sales fun?
- Learning to sell means speaking to one person
- How can you sell more?
- Learning to sell means sending a personal message
- Learning to sell is inviting your customer to the next thing
- Using automation
- Look and see who is opening up your emails
- The best way to contact Renee
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com *****
https://smallbizmama.com/learning-to-sell-like-a-mother-with-renee-hribar/
Find out why your business is also national. Tips to make sure that you have an online presence to make it easy for customers to reach you.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 64 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
- Why all business is national
- Your business is national so you have to have a virtual presence
- Make it easy for customers to contact you on your webpage
- Since your business is national you'll have a different perspective
- How do you find clients nationally to make sure your business is national?
• Facebook groups
• LinkedIn
• Clubhouse
• Instagram
• National Groups - Your business is national, what is your national strategy going to be?
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com *****
https://smallbizmama.com/why-all-business-is-national/
Find our why your business is local, even if you have a virtual business. I'll share different strategies that you can use to network locally to find clients.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 63 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
- Why all business is local
- Do some local networking
- Serve your ideal customer
- If your business is local, do not go door-to-door
- Strategies to network locally where your business is local
- Join online local business groups
- Check out local colleges
- Try your local chamber of commerce
- Join mom groups or start one
- Get involved with local business organizations
- Try civic organizations
- Start networking where your business is local
- Networking where your business is local leads to referrals
For the complete show, notes go to: https://smallbizmama.com/why-all-business-is-local/
If you are a service provider, learn what the biggest sales mistake small business owners make and how to avoid it during the discovery call process.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 62 on smallbizmama.com
Topics:
- Biggest sales mistake small business owners make
- How to avoid the biggest sales mistake small business owners make
- To avoid the biggest sales mistake learn to listen
- How the goal of a discovery call helps you avoid the biggest sales mistake
- Send a questionnaire before the discovery call
- Don't put together a proposal during the discovery call
- Know your goal for a discovery call to avoid the biggest sales mistake
- Don't let fear of the discovery call stop your progress on your business
- See if you are a good fit to work together during the discovery call to help avoid the biggest sales mistake
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com *****
https://smallbizmama.com/biggest-sales-mistake-small-business-owners-make/
Finding ideas for posting on social is easier than you think. Inspiration is all around you and knowing your ideal customer will help.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 61 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
- Finding Ideas for Posting on Social
- What you need to start finding ideas for posting on social
- Serve your ideal customer
- Pick an ideal customer for right now
- Know your ideal customer’s interest, pain points, and objections
- In finding ideas for posting on social you have to curate your social media
- Where can you find inspirations to help in finding ideas for posting on social
- Follow other pages
- Follow the leaders in your field
- Not all content that you post has to be original to you
- Where I find inspiration to post on social
- Now that you are finding ideas to post on social have fun
- Keep people engaged when finding ideas to post on social
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com *****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/finding-ideas-for-posting-on-social/
As summer is approaching quickly and kids are getting out of school learn this really simple technique to schedule more fun into your summer.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 60 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
- How to schedule more fun
- To schedule more fun you need a weekly schedule
- How do you change your schedule around to have more fun?
- Start with a blank calendar
- To schedule more fun you need to know what your must-do's are
- Your fun day does not have to be on the weekend
- Now it's time to schedule more fun
- To schedule more fun you need to know what is fun for you
- You need to schedule some more mama fun
- Now schedule anything else remaining
- Sometimes you need to compromise to schedule more fun
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com *****
http://www.smallbizmama.com/how-to-schedule-more-fun-this-season/
If you work from home, here are seven ways to make work more fun. Even if it seems impossible with everything you have to do, you can make work more fun.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 59 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
- 7 ways to make work more fun
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- Add background noise
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- Gamify to make your work more fun
-
- Work with friends to make your work more fun
-
- Take fun breaks
-
- Break your task down into small pieces
-
- Work somewhere else
-
- Write down your wins
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com *****
http://www.smallbizmama.com/7-ways-to-make-work-more-fun/
Why is it so important to determine what is essential in your life? How do the essentials in your life fit in with your schedule?
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 58 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
- What is essential in your life?
- Determine what is essential in your life
- Why determining what is essential in your life is important
- How to add the essentials in your life to your schedule
- How knowing the essentials in your life help set priorities
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com *****
http://www.smallbizmama.com/what-is-essential-in-your-life/
What's filling your jar? What are the rocks, pebbles, and sand in your life? How do you determine what you want filling your jar?
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 57 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
- What's filling your jar?
- What rocks, pebbles, and sand are filling your jar
- Distinguish what are rocks, pebbles, and sand in your life
- Are you happy with what's filling your jar?
- Determine what you will be filling your jar with
- What do you want in your life?
- What do you want to be filling your jar with?
- When filling your jar, you need to track what you do
- What are you spending your time on?
- When filling your jar, you need to find solutions
For the complete show, notes go to smallbizmama.com
http://www.smallbizmama.com/whats-filling-your-jar/
Are you starting and naming a business? From LLC to DBA, to getting an EIN and being a registered agent, and more. Find answers here to the most FAQs!
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 56 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
- Starting and Naming a Business
- Decisions you need to make when starting and naming a business
- When starting and naming my business, do I do an LLC or DBA?
- When starting a business, how do I go about naming a business?
- Know who your ideal customer is
- I am done naming my business, now what?
- If I'm starting a business, do I need to register it?
- I've registered my business, now what?
- Should I use my home address or get a PO Box?
- If I'm starting and naming my business under an LLC, do I need a registered agent?
- Do you have any more questions on starting and naming a business?
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com
http://www.smallbizmama.com/starting-and-naming-a-business/
You need to figure out what your MVC is - the minimum viable care that you need in order to be productive and able to focus throughout the day.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 55 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
- What's your minimum viable care?
- What my minimum viable care (MVC) is
- My list of MVC items
- Get 7 hours and 15 minutes of sleep
- Drink 32 ounces of water per day
- Take a morning shower and get dressed
- Fill out my planner and have a big-three list for the day
- Move for 20 to 30 minutes every day
- What is your MVC list?
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com
https://www.smallbizmama.com/whats-your-minimum-viable-care/
In order to get your fear in check, there is a three-step process that you need to do every day, especially when fear sets in and you just want to quit.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 54 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
- Getting the fear in check
- Acknowledge that fear is normal
- A three-step process to keep fear in check
- Unpack the why to keep fear in check
- How I did not let my fear get in the way of launching Bookkeeper Training School
- Getting that first client is hard
- Act to keep fear in check
- You need to keep going, push past the fear
- As you grow your business you will have many feelings.
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com
https://www.smallbizmama.com/getting-the-fear-in-check/
It's time to pick one thing and do it. Get out of the never-ending path of learning without doing. It's time to break this cycle in order to succeed.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 53 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
- Pick one thing and do it
- Pick one thing and do it till it's successful
- If you're doing too much
- Pour your attention into one thing and do it
- Get out of the cycle of learning and start doing
- Pick one thing today and do that
- Why focusing on the doing is so important
- Fear of failure should not hold you back
- Pick one thing and do it
- When you can't decide what is the one thing that you will pick
- Pick one thing to focus on this week for spring cleaning your mind
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com
https://www.smallbizmama.com/pick-one-thing-and-do-it/
You need to do regular decluttering of your mind to function better. There are seven things you need to focus on when spring cleaning your mind.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 52 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
- Spring Cleaning Your Mind
- Seven things to think about when spring cleaning your mind
- Number 1: Get more sleep
- Number 2: Make sure you're hydrating and getting the nutrients your body needs
- Number 3: Move your body
- Number 4: Stimulate your mind
- Number 5: Write things down
- Number 6: Stop the negative self-talk
- Number 7: Practice gratitude regularly
- There is always a possibility for change
- Pick one thing to focus on this week for spring cleaning your mind
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com ****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/spring-cleaning-your-mind/
There are three steps to take when spring cleaning your finances. Get your money under control so you can get ahead and reach your financial goal.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 51 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
- Spring cleaning your finances
- Where do you start with spring cleaning your finances?
- Step 1: What is your goal with money?
- As your spring cleaning your finances, what will make you sleep better at night?
- Have your goal front and center
- Step 2: Figure out where your money is going right now
- As your spring cleaning your finances take a good look at your monthly subscriptions
- Figure out what areas in your life you are spending more money on than you think
- Step 3: Pay your goal first
- How to make sure you are cutting back in spending when spring cleaning your finances
- When spring cleaning your finance the key to reaching your money goal
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com
https://www.smallbizmama.com/spring-cleaning-your-finances/
Spring cleaning is not only for your home. In this third episode on spring cleaning, we will be focusing on business spring cleaning. Spring cleaning your business will help you determine what's working in your business and what you need to change in order to grow.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 50 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
- Business Spring Cleaning
- Business spring cleaning helps you focus on what's generating revenue
- What actions are you taking in your business to generate revenue?
- Business spring cleaning will help you improve your marketing
- Business spring cleaning will help you figure out how people found you
- Keep track of what you are doing
- Figure out how to get those lingering tasks done
- Recap on business spring cleaning
For the complete show, notes go to smallbizmama.com
http://www.smallbizmama.com/business-spring-cleaning/
In this second part of the Spring Cleaning series, we will focus on life. There are two questions you need to ask yourself when spring cleaning your life. Learn why these are important for you, your family, and your business.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 49 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
- Spring cleaning your life can be hard
- Two questions to ask for spring cleaning your life
- What do you want in your life right now?
- My dream to live elsewhere as I focus on spring cleaning my life
- Don't put limits on yourself when spring cleaning your life
- What do you need to remove from your life to make that happen?
- When spring cleaning your life you need to look at your schedule
- Things that need to go when spring cleaning your life
- Gaining traction is what's going to make a difference when spring cleaning your life
- When spring cleaning your life think about the identities you've created for yourself
- When spring cleaning your life let go of those identities
- When spring cleaning your life remember that words matter
- When your spring cleaning your life you have the do things differently
- Don't let the identity you've created for yourself stay the same
For the complete show, notes go to smallbizmama.com
https://www.smallbizmama.com/life-spring-cleaning/
In this first part of the monthly series on spring cleaning, you will learn all about how to do a spring cleaning of your social media, why you need to, and what to do.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 48 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
- Spring Cleaning your Social Media
- Why start with spring cleaning your social media?
- Four questions you need to ask yourself for spring cleaning your social media
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- What do you use social media for?
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- How much time are you going to spend on social media?
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- Who do you want to be on social media?
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- What platforms will you focus on?
- How spring-cleaning your social media will help you use it for business purposes
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com
https://www.smallbizmama.com/social-media-spring-cleaning/
Learn tips and strategies that we use to help us with winning at parenting. These tips and strategies will also help you with winning at parenting.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 47 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
- Winning at Parenting with Jeffery Ingram
- Using a schedule as a strategy for help with winning at parenting
- Winning at parenting is the realization that there is always going to be changes
- Having an on-call parent to help with winning at parenting
- Activities to help kids stay entertained to help with winning at parenting
- Teach independence at a young age
- Figure out what your kid's thing is
- Be fully present with your child to help with winning at parenting
- How we use Montessori to help us with winning at parenting
- Observe what your child is doing
- Team mentality will help with winning at parenting
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com
https://www.smallbizmama.com/winning-at-parenting-with-jeffery-ingram/
Learn how to win at business as you do business together with your spouse. Learn tips and strategies that help you work well together in your business.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 46 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
• Winning at business with Jeffery Ingram
• How are we winning at business
• Define roles to help with winning at business
• Outsourcing will help with winning at business
• Work in your zone of genius
• Know your limitations to help with winning at business
• Winning at business
For the complete show, notes go to smallbizmama.com
https://www.smallbizmama.com/winning-at-business-with-jeffery-ingram/
Learn tips and strategies so you and your spouse can win at life as a team which will help you in every aspect.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 45 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
• Winning at Life with Jeffery Ingram
• Winning at Life is where it all starts
• Winning at life requires us versus the world mentality
• Winning at life requires you to work as a team
• Final thoughts on Winning at Life with Jeffery:
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com
https://www.smallbizmama.com/winning-at-life-with-jeffery-ingram/
How to get things done when your kids don't nap. Learn the secret of how to instill quiet time in your house so you can get things done and take a little time for yourself too!
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 44 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
- How to get things done when your kids won't nap
- How to set yourself up for success and get things done even if your kids don't nap
- What is quiet time?
- Make sure you have an afternoon routine so you can get things done if your kids don't nap
- Quiet time for older kids
- Everybody can benefit from quiet time
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com ****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/how-to-get-things-done-when-your-kids-dont-nap/
What do you do when an emergency interferes with your small business? Find out what five steps you need to do in an emergency situation with your business.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for Episode 43 on SmallBizMama.com
Topics
- Pre-Work needed in case an emergency interferes with your business
- Four steps you need to do when an emergency interferes with your small business
- Step 1: Assess the emergency situation
- Step 2: Figure out how long the emergency situation will impact your business
- Figure out what you can do during an emergency situation in your business
- Client work during an emergency situation
- Step 3: Notify anyone that is going to be impacted by the emergency situation
- Step 4: Do what you can while taking care of yourself
- f you don't take care of yourself you could get sick
- When an emergency situation interferes with your business
For the complete show notes go to:
https://www.smallbizmama.com/what-to-do-when-an-emergency-interferes-with-your-small-business/
Learn five ways to save money without missing it. As you implement these steps you will see your savings grow little by little. Pay off debt and create an emergency fund.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 42 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
• Five ways to save money without missing it
• Save any newfound money
• What is newfound money?
• Use a roundup program to save money
• Cancel unused subscription to save money
• Stop getting a tax refund to save money
• Save first, not last
• Example of how to save first, not last
• Get everything out of the account that needs to get paid
For the complete show, notes go to:
https://www.smallbizmama.com/five-ways-to-save-money/
Learn about the four things you can use to help you keep track of all things and make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 41 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
- How to keep track of all things
- Four things to help you keep track of all things
- Use a digital calendar to help keep track of all things
- Use a task manager to help you manage all things
- Why using a task management system is so beneficial to help you keep track of all things
- Minimize the number of daily decisions you need to make
- Use a filing system to help keep track of all things
- How to develop your filing system to help you keep track
- What if you don't feel comfortable using an electronic filing system?
- Use a paper planner to help keep track of all things
- How you can use these four things to help you keep track of all things
- Tips on how to develop your system to help keep track of all things
For the complete show, notes go to smallbizmama.com
https://www.smallbizmama.com/how-to-keep-track-of-all-things/
How to prepare your children for college even before they start school. Learn three things that will prepare your children to succeed in college and life.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 40 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
- How to prepare children for college before they start school
- Three things to focus on to prepare children for college before they start school
- How routines and planning helps prepare children for college
- Routines
- Example of a routine
- Planning
- How to teach your child planning to prepare them for college
- How fostering independence helps prepare children for college
- How getting a job fosters independence, routines, and planning
- Ways to foster independence in children
- How decision-making helps prepare children for college
- What determines if children will be successful in college
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com *****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/how-to-prepare-your-children-for-college-even-before-they-start-school/
ow to get back on track when you are stuck. Here are five steps you can follow to help you determine what needs to change to help you not feel stuck.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 39 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
- How to Get Back on Track When You Are Feeling Stuck
- You are feeling stuck and can't move forward
- What do you want to learn from this season?
- What do you want your life to look like right now?
- Step 1: Figure out what's really important will help you not feel stuck
- Figure out what is really important to you
- Step 2: Reconnect with your why will help you not feel stuck
- Internal struggles
- Step 3: Determine what's realistic but hard will help push you out of stuck
- How groups can help you not feel stuck
- Step 4: You need to be okay with failing to help you not feel stuck.
- Step 5: Shift the one thing that will have the most impact to help you not feel stuck
- Find that one thing that will help you not feel stuck
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com
https://www.smallbizmama.com/how-to-get-back-on-track-when-you-are-stuck/
Honoring your limits can be done by doing this exercise to know what you do every week and how much time you spend on it. Define what's important.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 38 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
- Honoring the limits
- Time exercise to help with honoring the limits
- Overview of the time exercise
- Write down what you want to do every week
- Assign times to the things you wrote down
- Honoring your limits
- Think about how many things you try to shove into your week
- Honoring the limits requires you to decide what's really important to you
- Post your list somewhere where you can see it every day
- Review your list every week to help keep you on track in honoring your limits
For the complete show, notes go to smallbizmama.com
https://www.smallbizmama.com/honoring-the-limits/
What do you do when you don't know what your goals are? Make a list of 10 areas of your life to help figure out what your goals should be.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 37 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
- How do you figure out what your goals are
- Ten areas of your life you need to focus on when choosing what your goals are
- Health, Mental and Emotional, Partner or Love, Family, Friends, Mission, Experiences, Spirit, Finances, Learning
- How to choose what your goals are
- What are things that you would regret not doing
- This focus becomes habits that then becomes what your goals are
- Start now defining what your goals are!
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com
https://www.smallbizmama.com/what-to-do-when-you-dont-know-what-your-goals-are/
Is your Facebook profile hurting your business? What you do with your Facebook profile can either benefit or hurt your business. Learn what you need to do with your profile to help your business.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 36 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
• Is Your Facebook Profile Harming Your Business?
• How Facebook help you grow your business
• Your Facebook profile and your business
• How your Facebook profile can help your business
• Other ways to use Facebook
• What shows up when you click on your name
• Your profile picture in Facebook
• Your tagline and intro in Facebook
• What posts are showing publicly
• To Post Publicly or Not
• Facebook groups
• Friend requests
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com
smallbizmama.com/is-your-facebook-profile-hurting-your-business/
What is your idea of being successful? Is trying to be successful burning you out? You need to rethink your idea of success. I'll show you how.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 35 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
• Why you never feel successful
• How to define your vision of what being successful looks like
• What if you don't know what to do to start a business
• What does your week look like?
• Define what your vision of being successful looks like
• Determine the cost of success
• Quality of life versus stuff
• Think about what's important to you
• How your thinking defines your being successful
• What does success look like to you?
• Your vision of success does not have to look like anybody else's
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com
https://www.smallbizmama.com/if-you-never-feel-successful-this-may-be-why/
How do you use screen time with your kids in a way that is not going to make you feel mom guilt?
I'll share some tips and some tricks to decrease screen time and still keep your kids entertained.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 34 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
• Kids and Screen Time - The No-Guilt Edition
• Minimize continual screen time for kids
• So how do you minimize continual screen time?
• What to do with kids instead of screen time
• How to create excitement around toys to decrease screen time
• Get your kids moving with screen time
• Break things up to limit continuous screen time
• Remote schooling
• Break things up to limit continuous screen time
• Do what you are comfortable with
• Don't be hard on yourself
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com
https://www.smallbizmama.com/kids-and-screen-time-the-no-guilt-edition/
There are three things as a new business owner that you need to stop saying
And those three things are:
1. But it needs to be perfect
2. I don't have time
3. I don't want to… and insert things.
These are three things that a new business owner needs to stop saying. We'll break down each
one of these. Learn why these three things are harmful and how you can stop saying them.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 33 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
• As a business owner stop saying, "It needs to be perfect."
• As a business owner stop saying, "I don’t have time."
• Block off time on your calendar
• As a business owner stop saying, "I don’t want to…"
• Three things you need to stop saying as a business owner
• Join a group for community
For the complete show notes go to small biz mama.com
https://www.smallbizmama.com/as-a-business-owner-what-you-need-to-stop-saying/
There are three ways to save time on household tasks.
Number 1: Outsource
Number 2: Delegate
Number 3: Use 15-minute blocks
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 32 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
• Three Ways to Save Time on Household Tasks
• Outsource Some Household Task to Save Time
• What you can outsource
• Delegate based on strengths to save time on household tasks
• Save time on household tasks by using 15-minute blocks
• Set your timer for 15-minutes
• Three tips to save time on household tasks
For the complete show, notes go to smallbizmama.com
https://www.smallbizmama.com/save-time-on-household-tasks/
What does mindset have to do with growing/starting a business? What do you need to work on?
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 31 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
• Why Focusing on Your Mindset is so Important
• What does mindset have to do with growing your business?
• What happens when you are not in the right mindset?
• How to get past the fear
• How to get past the fear to get into the right mindset?
• Determine what is external and what is internal
• Examples of negative thoughts that affect your mindset
• Are your thoughts realistically stopping you from having the right mindset?
• What if you don’t have time to work on your mindset?
• Suggested podcasts/books to listen/read to:
• How social media can drive your negative mindset
• What’s important in your life?
• Recenter yourself
• How a brain dump helps your mindset
• Steps to take to work on your mindset
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/why-your-mindset-is-so-important/
Can I claim my home office? Who can and cannot claim a home office? Is it an an audit flag? What can you claim? Learn more on how to file a claim.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 30 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
• Can you claim your home office?
• Will you Get Audited if you Claim your Home Office?
• Who Can Claim a Home Office Deduction?
• What do you need to have in order to claim a home office?
• Can You Use A Portion of A Room as Your Home Office?
• Can You Have Another Location and Still Claim A Home Office?
• How Do You Pay For Things For Your Home Office?
• Sole Proprietorship
• Partnership or S-Corporation
• How do you Deduct the Costs of Having a Home Office?
• What about renting out the home office space for yourself?
• Who can do a reimbursement?
• What kind of documentation do you need to have?
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/claim-my-home-office/
Three apps that save your sanity. Learn how they work and why you need them in your business. Save time and energy with these apps.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 29 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
• Three Apps That Save Your Sanity
• Sharing Passwords with LastPass
• LastPass App To Save Your Sanity
• Asana App To Save Your Sanity
• How To Use A Paper Planner In Conjunction With Asana?
• Slack App To Help Save Your Sanity
• How Can Slack Help You
• How Do You Survive Working From Home? How Do You Survive Working From Home?
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/three-apps-that-save-your-sanity/
Working from home with everybody at home all the time can be tough. I want to share some tips on how to create an ideal working environment.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 27 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
• Working From Home With Spouse And Kids
• Have A Place To Work
• Communication Is Key When Working From Home
• Work Unconventional Hours
• How Do You Survive Working From Home? How Do You Survive Working From Home?
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/a-schedule-is-important-for-your-kids-and-your-business/
Mentions ***********
https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/employee-relations/pages/working-from-home-with-kids-coronavirus.aspx
https://hbr.org/2020/03/a-guide-for-working-from-home-parents
https://www.youtube.com/user/CosmicKidsYoga
https://www.youtube.com/user/ArtforKidsHub
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2YBT7HYqCbbvzu3kKZ3wnw
https://zoom.us/
Self-care for every mama is so important. Determine what self-care will really charge you back up. Define when, where, and how to get your self-care.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 27 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
• Self-Care for Every Mama
• Four Questions To Ask Yourself About Self-Care
• What is Self-Care for You Mama?
• When Are You Going To Do Your Self-Care?
• Where Are You Going To Do Your Self-Care?
• How Are You Going To Get Your Self-Care Mama?
• What Is A Self-Care Menu?
• How Do You Plan Out Your Self-Care
• Determine What Self-Care Works For You Mama
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/a-schedule-is-important-for-your-kids-and-your-business/
Mentions ***********
http://childcarerrnc.org/secrets/folder/030303/RoutinesandClassroomSchedules120907828.pdf
https://www.melbournechildpsychology.com.au/blog/the-importance-of-routine-in-childhood/
https://careertrend.com/facts-5685997-work-schedules-important.html
https://www.romper.com/p/how-to-get-your-kid-on-a-schedule-when-you-dont-do-schedules-well-54720
Does the idea of homeschooling overwhelm you? Aubrey Hagris is sharing with you what Montessori homeschooling looks like for ages 7 and up,
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 26 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
• Who is Aubrey Hargis?
• What does Montessori homeschooling look like for children in the elementary grades?
• Montessori Homeschooling and Park Days
• Montessori Homeschooling During COVID
• How to build your Montessori Homeschool schedule and picking classes
• Homeschooling Co-ops and Out School
• Homeschooling for Middle-School
• Involve Your Middle-Schooler in Your Homeschool Planning
• Homeschooling High-School
• How to Go About Picking Curriculum for Homeschooling
• Researching Homeschooling curriculum
• Curriculum is just a resource
• Do not get stuck in the comparison trap
• How to connect with Aubrey
• Other Homeschooling Resources
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/episode-26-part-2-interview-with-aubrey-hargis-child-of-the-redwoods-montessori-homeschooling/
Mentions ***********
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childoftheredwoods/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/childoftheredwoods/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/aubreyhargis/
Download your Free Montessori Homeschool Planner:https://www.smallbizmama.com/homeschool
Guidepost Montessori: https://guidepostmontessori.com/
Affiliates ***********
Follow Us ***********
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/kristinlingramcpa
Small Biz Mama Podcast on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/smallbizmamapodcast/
Small Biz Mama Group on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/smallbizmama/
The Small Biz Mama on Instagram https://www.facebook.com/groups/smallbizmama/
Pinterest smallbizmama https://www.pinterest.com/SmallBizMama/
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr6kKxvKTAwf2mPNITooG1g
Does the idea of homeschooling overwhelm you? Aubrey Hagris is here to share with you what Montessori homeschooling looks like for ages 3-6.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 25 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
• Who is Aubrey Hargis?
• What does Montessori homeschooling look like for children in the preschool age range?
• Montessori Homeschooling Preschoolers
• At what age do you put more structure into Montessori homeschooling?
• Homeschooling Kindergarten
• How much time should be dedicated to Montessori homeschooling in Kindergarten?
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/aubrey-hargis-montessori-homeschooling/
Mentions ***********
https://www.smallbizmama.com/aubrey-hargis-montessori-homeschooling/
Affiliates ***********
Baby's First Year Milestones https://amzn.to/32MRdrB
Toddler Discipline for Every Age and Stage https://amzn.to/3bf0Nrc
Follow Us ***********
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/kristinlingramcpa
Small Biz Mama Podcast on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/smallbizmamapodcast/
Small Biz Mama Group on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/smallbizmama/
The Small Biz Mama on Instagram https://www.facebook.com/groups/smallbizmama/
Pinterest smallbizmama https://www.pinterest.com/SmallBizMama/
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr6kKxvKTAwf2mPNITooG1g
Now that you are working from home you, your kids and your business need a schedule. Put some structure in your home and business life.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 24 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
• Studies have shown that schedules and routines influence many aspects of children’s development (emotional, cognitive, and social). Predictable schedules help young children feel secure, safe and comfortable. Schedules and routines actually help reduce behavior problems, such as tantrums and aggression.
• Psychologist Dani Kaufman was recently quoted in an article on news.com.au, titled ‘Raising well-adjusted kids’. The article suggests that there is one ritual that every parent should do with their child before the age of seven. The ritual in question? Routine.
• Developing your own family ritual/schedule will give your child consistency and security in the home, as well as setting them up with good habits for life. Building routines with your children helps them to feel safe’, says Dani. ‘They know what to expect when they go home, and it provides them with clear boundaries, expectations, and consistency.’
• In what some researchers have described as an ‘epidemic of anxiety’, the predictability and familiarity that comes with routine offers the perfect ‘safe space’ that kids need.
• Not only is routine hugely helpful in making your kids feel safe, it’s also fundamental in the development of good habits.
• Habits that come with routine show kids that there are consequences to their behaviors. For example, perhaps part of the routine is that play time only starts when homework is finished, or that dessert is only served when all their vegetables are eaten.
• Whether you work from home, are self-employed, or work outside the home, maintaining a consistent work schedule is important. There are several key reasons why keeping a work schedule is vital to the success of any business.
• A work schedule is imperative to getting work done in a well-organized manner. Most employers draw up work schedules that aim to reduce labor cost and get the maximum amount of work accomplished in the allotted time.
• When you are working under a deadline, a work schedule is a valuable structure that ensures the deadline will be met.
• By working under a prearranged amount of time, you can prioritize the work that needs to be done. In some settings, employers will lay out exactly what tasks need to be completed during the shift.
• A work schedule is essential to maintaining a balance between life and work. This is especially true for those who work from home, as it is often difficult to tear yourself away from work and focus on family, friends, and personal time.
• Stress is an unavoidable part of work and life. Creating a work schedule, however, can help put things in a distinct time frame and allow you to leave your work at the workplace.
Methods to Implement a Schedule into Your Daily Routine
• Utilize a weekly planner or You can also use apps and software such as Google Calendar®, MS Outlook® and Business Calendar. Choose a scheduling tool that suits your situation, the current structure of your job, your personal taste, and your budget.
• Follow this six-step process to prepare your schedule:
• Identify the time you have available.
• Block in the essential tasks you must carry out to succeed in your job.
• Schedule high-priority urgent tasks and vital "housekeeping" activities.
• Block in appropriate contingency time to handle unpredictable events and interruptions.
• Schedule the activities that address your priorities and personal goals in the time that remains.
• Analyze your activities to identify tasks that can be delegated, outsourced or cut altogether.
Here are nine ways to make a schedule work for you and your family.
1. FInd a Method That Works for You
2. Have a Bedtime Routine
3. Ditch the Devices
4. Prepare Ahead
5. Visualize It
6. Adjust As You Go
7. Be Consistent
8. Expect Setbacks
9. Don’t Forget Downtime
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/a-schedule-is-important-for-your-kids-and-your-business/
Mentions ***********
http://childcarerrnc.org/secrets/folder/030303/RoutinesandClassroomSchedules120907828.pdf
https://www.melbournechildpsychology.com.au/blog/the-importance-of-routine-in-childhood/
https://careertrend.com/facts-5685997-work-schedules-important.html
https://www.romper.com/p/how-to-get-your-kid-on-a-schedule-when-you-dont-do-schedules-well-54720
Some ways of dealing with breadwinner guilt are to find what charges you back up and do it. Let go of perfectionism and give yourself grace.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 23 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
• Despite the balancing acts working women must perform and the pervasive gender pay gap, an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll suggests that 49% of U.S. working women serve as their family's main breadwinner.
• This number includes an estimated 42% of working women with children. Among women married to, or cohabiting with, a male partner, researchers say 31% are earning at least half of their household income.
• In research on the female breadwinner, Meisenbach (2010) found that many of these women felt enormous guilt and resentment.
• It would also appear that the gender socialization of women as nurturers and primary caregivers is enduring and instilling an embedded standard that women themselves want to uphold (April and Mooketsi, 2010). Consequently, women are under significant pressure when they attempt to put their emotional needs and personal fulfillment (joy and subjective wellbeing— instinctually individual) above their idealistic responsibilities and beliefs
• These sometimes unreasonable, stressful and fear-driven societal and cultural expectations induce differential self-views and can be fertile grounds for reoccurring guilt and shame (Thomson and Walker, 1989; and Lewis, 1992), exacerbated by feelings of inferiority, exhaustion, confusion, fearfulness, and anger (Douglas and Michaels, 2004)
• As the model of the female breadwinner grew, so the growth of the ‘house husband’ arose— husbands who are actively engaged in a role reversal with their wives (Wentworth and Chell, 2001). It has been argued that the breadwinner role validates a man’s masculinity (Lewis and Cooper, 1987) and that men who cannot fulfill the breadwinner role are not fully adult or not fully masculine (Meisenbach, 2010)—thus, seen as having their sexuality questioned. As such, another essential part of a female breadwinner’s experience is skillfully managing the male’s identity by valuing his household contribution.
• When it comes to family-life satisfaction, women who earn more than their husbands report lower satisfaction than their peers who have a lower income than their spouses, according to a new Institute for Family Studies/Wheatley Institution survey of U.S. adults ages 18 to 50.
• On other measures, including marital satisfaction and whether the couple feels close and engaged in the relationship, female breadwinners also score lower than their peers who earn less than their husbands.
• The culprit here may be traditional gender norms. The idea that men should take the lead in breadwinning and women in caring for children and the home still affects men and women today, and a violation of this norm could make some couples uncomfortable with their arrangement
• When it comes to childcare responsibilities, married mothers who are the primary breadwinner in the house are also much more likely than fathers in the same role to take a lead in the childcare responsibilities (37% vs. 7%). So, when wives are the primary breadwinners, they are still much more likely to assume a disproportionate share of housework and childcare. This is an example of the classic “second shift” that sociologist Arlie Hochschild pointed to in her book. It is easy to see why these overworked breadwinner wives and mothers may not be as happy as others.
Tips to help with Breadwinner Guilt:
1. Stay Focused, Say No:
a. We're all guilty of not spending time in the moment. When we're working, we're often thinking of all the things we should, could and would do with our family this weekend. At home, we let work and "real life" project task lists run through our heads. By doing so, we're not maximizing our time spent in either camp.
b. Obvious, but the basic rule: Work when you're at work; let it go when you're at home.
2. Blur Gender Roles:
a. Whether we agree with it or not, eyebrows often rise when the man is not the family provider, and watch out if he decides to stay home with the kids. Gender roles, expectations that wives stay home to care for families, and our own egos can sometimes combine to create relationship tension, resentment, and stress.
b. Reducing the stigma of gender roles, even just within your household would ultimately help reduce the stress and resentment one feels when comparing their work and home situation to the societal gender norms our society and culture have ingrained in us.
• A recent study suggests that how couples divide their household tasks is linked to their relationship satisfaction. And an earlier Pew Research survey found that “sharing household chores” is ranked as one of the top three factors associated with a successful marriage.
• The key, as always, is communication. Be upfront, discuss budding resentments early before they fester and grow. Divide responsibilities so that no one is unfairly burdened. Don’t take on everything yourself and be a martyr, blaming him for everything that may go wrong. The goal is to stop being “me” and “he” and be a “we.”
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/episode-23-dealing-with-breadwinner-guilt/
Mentions ***********
https://www.envestnetinstitute.com/article/burdens-executives-feel-primary-breadwinners
https://www.academia.edu/40978632/Female_Breadwinners_Resultant_Feelings_of_Guilt_and_Shame
https://ifstudies.org/blog/the-happiness-penalty-for-breadwinning-moms
https://lifestyle.howstuffworks.com/family/parenting/parenting-tips/5-things-to-know-when-moms-the-breadwinner5.htm
https://ifstudies.org/blog/the-happiness-penalty-for-breadwinning-moms
https://www.workingmomsagainstguilt.com/now-we-have-to-deal-with-breadwinner-guilt/
Setting boundaries with clients is fundamental to helping you become happier and mora productive. Read more on how to set boundaries.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 22 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
•Healthy boundaries are those boundaries that are set to make sure mentally and emotionally you are stable.
•Healthy boundaries are a crucial component of self-care. That’s because “in work or in our personal relationships, poor boundaries lead to resentment, anger, and burnout.
•Some teachers say that setting boundaries helps them avoid burnout and stay in the profession longer (Bernstein-Yamashiro & Noam, 2013). This is important because it indicates that healthy boundaries at work help someone find more fulfillment and less stress in their professional life—leaving room for a better personal life.
•More generally, the consequences of not setting healthy boundaries often include “stress, financial burdens, wasted time, and relationship issues, which can cause mental distress”
•Healthy boundaries serve the important function of allowing people to take responsibility for themselves and their actions while helping them avoid being in a position where they unfairly or inappropriately take responsibility for the emotions and needs of others. Having well-developed boundaries in place can lead to healthier relationships and help a person to avoid feeling manipulated, violated, or otherwise mistreated by other people.
•Weak interpersonal boundaries often result in an individual feeling emotionally drained, used, or even violated.
•Boundaries help protect people from intrusions from others. When an individual feels overwhelmed by the needs and requests of others, they may eventually come to feel as if their life has become chaotic and/or disorganized. That individual may have difficulty dealing with their own issues because they have come to feel responsible for helping others before themselves.
•7 Ways to Set Healthy Boundaries with Clients
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/setting-boundaries-with-clients/
Mentions ***********
https://positivepsychology.com/great-self-care-setting-healthy-boundaries/
https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/boundaries
https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinecastrillon/2019/07/18/10-ways-to-set-healthy-boundaries-at-work/#580635b37497
Book reveiw on How To Talk So Little Kids Will Listen and the strategies and tips really work to get kids to listen! I share how I apply them.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 11 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
• Chapter 1: Tools for Handling Emotions
• Chapter 2: Tools for Engaging Cooperation
• Chapter 3: Tools for Resolving Conflict
• Chapter 4: Tools for Praise and Appreciation
• Things to remember
• The Tools in Action
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/book-review-how-to-talk-so-little-kids-will-listen/
The One Mindset Shift That Will Change Your Life
Doesn’t that just make you want to read or listen to the podcast? I want to share with you the one mindset shift that changed everything for me, and how this can help you change your life.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 20 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
● What is that epiphany moment?
● Constantly be checking yourself
● Big Thing or Small Thing?
● How do you make the mindset shift that will change your life?
● Meditation
● Check yourself
● Mindset shift work that will help change your life
● Books I recommend
● Be authentic
● The One Mindset Shift that will Change your Life
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/the-mindset-shift-that-will-change-your-life/
Mentions ***********
https://www.smallbizmama.com/podcast/
How can you get new clients during COVID? Read about how I use attraction marketing to generate leads and build trust with my audience to get new clients.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 19 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
● Online marketing and attraction marketing
● Giving value by offering free content to pull prospective leads to your company
● Not completely giving away product or service for free but knowledge or information related to the product or service that would help the customer make a wise choice
● Attraction marketing improves engagement which in result increases sales
● The key to success when using attraction marketing is having a genuine interest in customers and their needs.
● How to Master Attraction Marketing
● Spread Knowledge
● Earn Trust
● Be authentic
● Be social and responsive
● Give insights
● Generate and distribute content
5 tips to attract more qualified leads with Attraction Marketing
● Know your audience
● Choose one channel - network that makes sense for finding your target audience (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.)
● Tell a story and back it up with statistics
● Offer your first solution - after drawing people in with engagement, provide them with an offer or service they cannot refuse. Something that will solve a problem or help them with a dilemma they are currently facing. Whatever the solution, this should leave your audience wanting more from your business in the future.
● Engage with your audience
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://smallbizmama.com/how-to-get-new-clients-during-covid/
Epsiode 18 – Tips to Help Your Kids Become Avid Readers
How do you help your kids become avid readers? Something that will make a huge difference in their life and trajectory is reading. See top three tips now.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 18 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
Tip #1: Read aloud to your children on a regular basis.
Tip #2: Keep books around your house
Tip #3: Let them see you reading. Reading frequently and enjoying it will reinforce reading as a part of your daily life.
List of Favorite Children's Books
More Tips to help your child become an avid reader
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/help-kids-become-avid-readers/
How to stop drowning in debt. I know a lot of people are struggling with this right now (because COVID) and it's unfortunate, but it typically takes some sort of catastrophe before we really look at the problem that we're having and that's what happened with us.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 17 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
My Family's debt journey
How to start getting out of debt
How to play defense with your debt
How to play offense with your debt
You can have a debt-free life
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/episode-17-help-im-drowning-in-debt/
Mentions ***********
http://AskKristin.net
http://paymentfreelife.com/
https://www.daveramsey.com/
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This simple plan only takes about 20 minutes but it saves me at least 2x that each workday. It also makes me so much more productive. I am a systems person. It's part of my personality type. I like systems, I like to develop systems, but even if you're not a systems person, these are seven things that you can do.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 16 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
Check in on my physical needs (hungry, thirsty, bathroom, sore, etc)
Turn off all but the essential notifications
Clear off my desk
Close all my tabs
Put on my diffuser
Meditate/Pray
Spend 10 minutes with my planner
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/episode-16-7-things-i-do-before-i-start-my-work-day-to-save-at-least-an-hour-everyday/
Mentions ***********
AskKristin.net http://askkristin.net
Full Focus Planner - Get $10 off your first order https://www.talkable.com/x/2KMYTA
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FriXion Pens https://amzn.to/38mZrsR
Passion Planner - Get 10% off your first order http://rwrd.io/8c4nbij
High Performance Planner https://amzn.to/3eKU9cX
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We do this to ourselves. I see this almost every single day as a college professor and I see it every single day in the business world. You are self-sabotaging your success. Maybe it's not all of you, but if this episode title resonated with you, you're probably killing your success with negative self-talk.
Topics
How Negative Talk Is Killing Your Success
What is self-talk?
The impacts of negative self-talk
How to stop negative self-talk
Practice gratitude every day
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/episode-15-how-negative-talk-is-killing-your-success/
Mentions ***********
https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-mindfulness-overcoming-negative-self-talk/
https://www.verywellmind.com/negative-self-talk-and-how-it-affects-us-4161304
https://youtu.be/mEyrfFwf3rI
Affiliates ***********
Bookkeeper Training School - http://bookkeepertrainingschool.com/
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One of the questions that I frequently get is "How do I plan my day so that I can get everything done?" It’s critically important that you are realistic about the time that you have and what you can actually get done.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 14 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
The Friday finished list
How to plan your week
How I use the Passion Planner
The key to successful planning
Find a system that works for you
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/episode-14-how-i-plan-my-day-so-i-get-everything-done-in-just-a-few-hours-at-my-desk/
Mentions ***********
Episode 9 https://www.smallbizmama.com/episode-9-the-number-one-most-important-tip-for-being-a-successful-business-owner-with-kids-at-home/
Affiliates ***********
Passion Planner-http://rwrd.io/8c4nbij
Bookkeeper Training School - http://bookkeepertrainingschool.com/
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You need an executive assistant. I know you think you can't afford an executive assistant. You don't even know what an executive assistant would do. It sounds very high brow and it's not something that you need.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 11 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
Executive Assistant
Post link to Michael Hyatt’s Your World Class Assistant
Post link to our EA application
Post link to Michaela’s hire form
Post link to Esther’s hire form
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/episode-13-the-next-position-you-should-hire-in-your-business/
Mentions ***********
https://yourworldclassassistant.com/
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I know that with everything going on, for some of you, it's really hard to get your kids to play outside. You may live in a city, you may live in an area where there’s still social distancing and quarantining going on. But if you look at the research, having kids play outside is critically important to their development. When people asked me how much time kids should spend playing outside, my first thought is probably more than they are.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 11 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
The consensus seems to be about three hours per day, although some experts say even more than that.
Harvard Medical School: 6 reasons children need to play outside
Sunshine
Exercise
Executive function
Taking risks
Socialization
Appreciation of nature
Parents Magazine article: Kids who spend more time outside are happier adults
I know some of you are already picking words of the year, and I think that's awesome. That's fantastic. It might be a really good idea to revisit that word and make sure it's still serving you, in the current environment. This word is a rallying cry for me. It's the first word I see every morning because it is the name of my alarm. It's really something to help rally you and motivate you to do the things that you need to do.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 11 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
Review the last few months
Ask yourself what characteristics you wish you exhibited more
Discuss how I felt I was really reactive
My word: Command (Intentional)
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/episode-11-how-to-pick-a-meaningful-word-for-the-rest-of-the-year/
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https://www.smallbizmama.com
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The year so far hasn't gone the way any of us planned. But it’s not too late to get things back on track. Today, I’m going to share five things you can do right now to restart your year off right.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 10 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
Restart The Year Off Right
Get a computer backup subscription
Create digital and paper 2020 receipts folders
Determine what is really important to you and surround yourself with it
Hire more help
Ambition sucks without a calendar
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/restart-the-year-off-right/
Working at home while your kids are home can feel overwhelming. I’m going to share with you the most important thing you can do to make this process much easier. I know you've got kids at home right now and if you're like me, you're struggling to get things done. My son is an amazing kid and he was an amazing baby. I am a tax accountant and he was born on December 27th. We rolled right into tax season. We had his little Pack ‘n Play. They had all the baby attachments on top and he would be in his little baby attachment asleep, right on top of the Pack ‘n Play. We were good to go. And then he became mobile. That did not work anymore. Jeff and I really had to look at what work we were doing. How can we keep working? We've got this toddler that wants to move and talk and grow and not let us work. And if you try to put them on your lap to work, he's going to type at your keyboard. As your kids get older, it becomes more difficult.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 9 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
Be realistic about what you can accomplish
Passion planner
There is a point where I rerecorded a line because my computer alarm went off. You should hear the alarm and then hear me rerecord a line. It was at the point I was talking about going downstairs to make Erik breakfast.
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/episode-9-the-number-one-most-important-tip-for-being-a-successful-business-owner-with-kids-at-home/
Mentions ***********
Passion Planner http://rwrd.io/8c4nbij
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This is a question that I get a lot. When I sit down with people, I ask, how much money they need to make each month, and they give me a number that is usually wrong. It's either way, way too high or it's way, way too low.
I want to help you get the right number for you, your life, and your business.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 8 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
Figure out how much you need to live
Add savings 15 to 20%
Calculate your business profit percentage, including taxes
Divide your total income need by your business profit percentage
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/episode-8-how-much-do-you-really-need-to-make-each-month/
Mentions ***********
https://www.smallbizlife.com/buy
https://www.mint.com/
https://www.youneedabudget.com/
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One of the most common questions I get as a CPA is what is an S-Corporation, and should I form one. So here is accountants take on an S-Corp and when they should be used for tax purposes.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 7 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
Tax designation - You must have an LLC or an INC to do this.
An S-Corporation is a pass-through entity, like a sole proprietorship or a partnership.
Differences: Must pay yourself W-2 wages if you work in the business, No SE tax on profits.
When? Elect when your profits are more than a reasonable salary for what you do. March 15 deadline for the current year (Form 2553). Must set up payroll.
Discuss the importance of reasonable compensation.
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/episode-6-how-to-eat-at-home-more-without-spending-all-your-time-planning-and-cooking/
Mentions ***********
https://www.salary.com/
https://gusto.com/partners/invite/kristin-l-ingram-cpa-msat
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In this episode of the Small Biz Mama Podcast, you'll learn how to quickly eat at home without spending all your time planning and cooking. I cover how to create a master meal plan, pantry basics, on my all-important "Oh Crap" meals
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 6 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
Create a master meal plan
Keep your pantry and fridge stocked
Have an "oh crap" meals list and keep those items on hand
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/episode-6-how-to-eat-at-home-more-without-spending-all-your-time-planning-and-cooking/
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https://www.smallbizmama.com/
Mother of all time courses https://www.smallbizlife.com/get-the-mother-of-all-time-courses-for-free
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In this episode of Small Biz Mama, you’ll learn why your toddler acts the way they do, how to help them navigate their way through the world, and how to show them how to treat other people.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 5 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
- Toddlers aren’t trying to be bad kids
- They are learning how to be humans, including learning limits
- We must show them how to react to other people
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/episode-5-the-most-important-thing-to-remember-when-youre-getting-angry-with-your-toddler/
Mentions ***********
https://www.smallbizmama.com/
Affiliates ***********
Book link: No bad kids by Janet Lansbury (https://amzn.to/363601G)
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Since the Corvid-19 pandemic started, we have spent so much extra time figuring out how to get food. We planned and set up before the store shelves began to empty. Here are 14 different places we found to get our food. If you have found any other sites, please be sure to let us know.
For a complete transcript check out our show notes for episode 4 on smallbizmama.com
Topics
- Instacart
- Shipt
- Amazon Prime
- Walmart
- Thrive Market (There is an annual membership fee but you can get that back if you don’t save at least that much. There are also free memberships for various groups like Military and Veterans
- Imperfect Foods
- Butcher Box
- Omaha Steaks
- Honey Baked Ham
- Walden Local Meats (New England and New York)
- Meal Kit Services (Blue Apron, Home Chef, Green Chef, Hello Fresh, Gobble)
- 7-Eleven
- Target Drive Up and Delivery
- Community Supported Agriculture
- Local Dairy Farms
- Local Grocery Stores
- Connect with your local chamber of commerce and Facebook groups
For the complete show, notes go to small biz mama.com****
https://www.smallbizmama.com/episode-4-thinking-outside-the-box-to-get-food-to-feed-your-family/
Mentions ***********
https://www.smallbizmama.com/coronavirus-resources/
Instacart
Shipt
Amazon Prime
Walmart
Thrive Market
Imperfect Foods
Butcher Box
Omaha Steaks
Honey Baked Ham
Walden Local Meats (New England and New York)
Meal Kit Services (Blue Apron, Home Chef, Green Chef, Hello Fresh, Gobble)
7-Eleven
Target Drive Up and Delivery
Community Supported Agriculture
Local Dairy Farms
Local Grocery Stores
Connect with your local chamber of commerce and Facebook groups
Affiliates ***********
Shipt (http://share.shipt.com/SfbHr)
Amazon Prime (https://amzn.to/2URnStp)
Thrive Market (http://thrv.me/pDw87Q)
Imperfect Foods (http://imprfct.us/v/kristin_3379)
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Welcome to Small Biz Mama Episode 3. This is the third episode in our series on things you can control. In this episode, we're going to talk about parenting. If you haven't listened to the first two episodes, I encourage you to go back and listen to the episode where we talk about life. I think that it's incredibly important that we feel a sense of control over our lives before we can implement some of these other strategies. So if you have not listened to that episode yet, stop. You can come back to this one later - go listen to that one. Okay?
Your children’s schedule Let's talk about a couple of things that you can control as a parent. I know that this is really hard. You might feel like everything's completely out of control as it comes to being a parent with your kids home, and with everything else going on. But here's the thing... some of the advice that I give you here may seem a little bit radical.
I'm a big believer in education. I'm a college professor. I was on the Board of Education in my town for two years. I love all things education. I think that schools have had to rush to get something in place to teach children. In their haste, they didn't really think about what it's going to be like. If you've got two parents home, they're working, and then you've got kids that are home, and we have limited devices, and we have limited Internet bandwidth. They didn't really think about those things. So we're going to put teachers on Zoom or Google Classroom or whatever we're going to use, and we're going to have them teach in front of children for seven hours a day. I know not all schools are doing that, but I know a lot of schools are putting undue pressure and stress on families because Mom and Dad are trying to work. They need to be on the computers, but the kids need to be on the computers, or they need to be on some device, or districts aren't sending devices home, and the internet is stretched.
I'm really encouraging parents especially the longer this goes. I think initially we thought this was going to be two weeks, and now who knows? I would encourage you to reach out to your school districts and explain to them the reality of what is going on. I'm sure a lot of your teachers have children, and a lot of administrators have children, and I think we all need to stop for a second and say, is this really what we want education to look like?
I have a lot of friends who home school, and we're actually planning to homeschool Erik. I know he's only two, but we're planning to do Montessori. We're in a wonderful homeschooling course called Children of the Redwoods. It's a phenomenal course, I'll put the links in the show notes for this episode. But when you're doing homeschooling, it's only a few hours a day of actually sitting down at a desk, because a lot of homeschooling is about practical life things. It's about going outside into nature. It's about letting children explore what they're interested in. And so to have kids sit in front of a screen for seven hours a day when we have told children how important it is for them to limit their screen time. (Right?! Isn't that what we do?) I think it's a little bit much.
I think there's a way that we can use teachers' time much better. Teachers I know are so stressed right now. I, unfortunately, think we're going to lose a lot of really good teachers over this, due to burnout. I would encourage you to try to put a little bit more control over your children's schedules, especially if you think that they're spending too much time in front of the screen. Reach out to your schools to see if there is some sort of alternative. It's a lot to expect from kids. I'm looking at these schedules - they don't have their friends around them. They're looking at a screen, and we want them in front of a screen for seven hours a day. It's not helpful. It's not healthy. So if you're in a district like that, if you're struggling with the technology that they want your kids to use, or you think it's too much, ultimately you are the parent in this situation, and this is something that you can control. Don't let the school districts bully you around. That might not be a popular opinion. I believe that children should be allowed to learn at their own pace, but I don't know that having them sitting in front of a computer that long, especially little kids, is really good for them. So that's one thing that you can control right now.
The emotions and vibe you push out into the world The second thing that you can control is you can control the emotions and the vibe that you push out into your home. I understand that we're all stressed out. I understand that you know many people are in difficult financial positions, but I think we also have to kind of check ourselves every once in a while, which is why I think that the first episode is so important.
Think about how we are behaving in front of our children. Essentially, what the purpose is, what is happening here...we are showing our children how to deal with stressful situations. We're showing our children how to react when things go badly. If we freak out and if we lose our cool, then we're teaching our children that this is how you deal with things.
Kids are very good at noticing what we're doing. They're very observant. And so we need to make sure that we're being a good example to them right now. And I get it. It's hard. In the last episode, we talked about how much this sucks. It does. But this is a really good opportunity for us to teach our kids what it looks like to be resilient and what it looks like to deal with trauma and with grief because I think there is a lot of grief here that we're not really giving ourselves time to acknowledge. This is a really good learning opportunity for them.
I hope that you will take the time to think about what is the vibe in your house right now. Is everybody on eggshells? Is everybody pissed off? Is everybody just not doing great? How can we change that? How can we put joy into our lives? How can we create an environment that is good for our children to be in and good for us to be in?
One thing we’ve done, I'm struggling with this a little bit, but, I'm working a lot less than I normally do, especially during tax season. That's so we all have time together as a family. We go outside a lot especially now. We were doing this when it was cold, but we’re doing it now that it's started to warm up a little bit here in Connecticut. We're spending time working with Erik, making sure that he is really getting what he needs through this. My mother was coming over and helping us a couple of days a week - she's not doing that anymore out of an abundance of caution. It's really hard. I think if we acknowledge that, but then say OK, what can we control the situation, then I think that makes it a lot easier. I think really thinking about the emotions that you're putting out, that the vibe that you're putting out, is super helpful because I think a lot of times we're not very cognizant of that.
I do mindfulness meditation, and I just do it in short bursts, but it is really helpful. I'll put a link in the show notes to the app that I use because they're doing free meditations every day at three o'clock in the afternoon Eastern time.
What your children remember when this is all over The last thing that you can control, and I love this perspective on this...
I saw a post on Facebook that was kind of circulating around. It was a kid, 10 years from now, saying to his parents, “We're studying the pandemic in school, and it seemed like it was such a weird time.”
And the parents said, “Yeah, everything was closed and it was awful. It was terrible. People lost their jobs and people died. It was a terrible, terrible time. Don't you remember it?”
And the son says “Well, I remember that we were home a lot. And we spent a lot of time together, and we ate dinners together, and it was probably some of the best memories I have of my childhood.”
You can control what your children remember when this is all over. That's such a cool thing to think about. We're doing that with Erik. We're spending a ton of time with him and we're thinking about how many hours a week we really want to work. How do we want our lives to look?
I understand that, for some people, when this is over and when we all go back to work (I know a lot of you are still working) but we go back to work and things reopen and things go back to normal.
I want you to think... Do you really want your life to be the way it was before this happened?
If the answer is no, then what are you going to do to make sure that that doesn't happen? This is such an amazing time to learn new things, to develop new habits with your kids. If you weren't used to eating dinner together, eat dinner together. I started baking bread again. I haven't done that in probably 10 years and Erik and Jeff love it. They think it's awesome. I'm doing lots of little things that I kind of forgot about. Erik is just so happy to have Jeff and I around. He misses his grandmother. but we're calling her all the time, and we're doing video calls. But, generally, he's a really, really happy kid, and I'm not seeing signs of stress in him. Jeff and I are just trying to take this one day at a time, but he's probably too young to remember anything from this.
I certainly want to make sure that he feels secure, that he feels safe, and that he feels happy. That's something that has been really important to me through this whole process is to make sure that he would have positive memories of this time when he gets older.
So, especially with children, there's not a tremendous amount that you can control. Because we're talking about other people. Even though they’re our kids, but there are certain things that we can control.
We can control our kids' schedules. We can push back a little bit on these school districts that are just over scheduling.
We can control the emotions and the vibe that we push out in our house.
And we can control what our Children remember when this is over.
I hope that you will take some time, especially if you've listened to all three of these episodes, to reframe right where you are. Think about you. Think about where you are, and think about where you want to be when this is all over. We're in a critical time for a lot of us. We went through the shock and the grief. If you look at the seven stages of grief, you know that I've gotten through anger. I've gotten through that piece. But if you look at the stages of loss, because that's really what we did. Many of us, we've lost our way of life. Now we're starting to come out of it and go, “Okay. What do we do next? Where do we go now?” We're going to be here for a while, and we can either continue slogging through and not being intentional about what we're doing or we can take control of the situation the best that we can with the things that we can control and make a better path. Hopefully, when this is all over, we’ll have stronger families, we’ll have stronger businesses, and we're stronger people when this is all done.
We've got a whole bunch of resources at SmallBizMama.com, including lots of links that I talked about in the last three episodes, to help you navigate this while we're dealing with this pandemic. I think a lot of these tips that I've given in the last three episodes are not just good for this, but they're good in general, right? And they will serve you well even after the pandemic is over.
So I'd love to know what you think. Go to SmallBizMama.com You can connect with us on social. You can contact us through the page. But I'd love to know what you think about this and how you're faring. If you're struggling, reach out. Reach out to us, reach out to a friend, reach out to your family.
You're not alone here. Sometimes it feels like it, especially with us all social distancing and staying at home. But you're really not alone. We have a group of moms, called the Small Biz Mama group. You can find it through SmallBizMama.com and they're a great group of moms in there. If you need some support, I have you in the group. All right. Thank you so much.
Thank you for listening to Small Biz Mama with Kristin Ingram.
If you like to learn how to create more margin in your life, please visit us at SmallBizMama.com
That's SmallBizMama.com
Links mentioned in this episode Child of the Redwoods Homeschooling course
Ten Percent Mediation
Episode 1 - Things You Can Control In Your Life
Episode 2 - Things You Can Control in Your Business
Episode 3 - Things You Can Control as a Parent
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Welcome to Small Biz Mama, Episode 2. This is the second in three episodes about things you can control. In this episode - things you can control in your business. Welcome to the podcast. I'm so glad that you joined us.
If you haven't listened to Episode 1, I hope that you'll stop right now, and you'll listen to Episode 1 first because that is the first episode in the series of three about things you can control. Episode 1 is about life, and I think it's incredibly important that we figure out what we can control in our lives first. That will give you the grounding in order to be able to really take control of your business in these difficult circumstances.
Let's talk about what you can control in your business. I know for many of you the virus has either shut down your businesses or greatly impacted your business. You may be sitting there thinking, “I don't even know what the point of listening to this episode is because my business is shut down. So there's nothing I can control about my business,” and that's really not true.
I try to teach my bookkeepers in the Bookkeeper Training School that, as business owners, we're leaders. Even if you have a really small business or home-based business, people in the community look up to business owners as the people that take charge, the people that make the community what it is. It's really hard for a lot of communities right now to see their favorite businesses closed.
There are a number of Facebook groups for my town and for my area, and people are talking about how they miss getting their nails done and getting her hair done. They miss their stylist. They miss their favorite coffee shop. It's interesting how the businesses in our community really help ground us in our routine. People are missing that right now.
For a lot of business owners, things feel so out of control right now. A lot of the strategies that we talked about in the first episode, can help you here as well, right. Hopefully, you'll go back and you'll listen to that.
Let's talk about what we can control.
Actions you take The first thing that we can control is the action that we take. Even if your business is shut down, you can decide that you can apply for SBA financial assistance. If you go to SmallBizMama.com, we have a whole page that is devoted to resources for business resources, life resources, parenting resources and all sorts of things dealing with the COVID-19 virus. Also in the show notes for this episode, you're going to find the links to applying for disaster assistance. There is a tremendous amount of money out there to help small businesses, but you have to act in order to get it. Some of it is really easy to apply for yourself. There's a grant program, it's $10,000, they're calling it a forgivable loan, but it's essentially a grant, and it comes really, really fast. It takes three days to come. If you qualify, it's something that you could do and something really easy to fill out. It took me about 10 minutes to go through and do it.
I actually walked a whole bunch of business owners through it, most of them, once they sat down and started to act, it took about 15 minutes to fill it out. Take action. Make sure that you're watching your bank balances, make sure that if you're going to get behind on something financially that you reach out, don't wait until your payments are late. Don't wait until you start getting late notices.
I know this sucks to have to call people and say “I can't pay you, how can we work this out?” But that is much better than burying your head in the sand. I know a lot of landlords that are working with people. The utilities are working with people. Credit card companies are working with people. But you have to take action. You can't just sit there and bury your head in the sand. That is not going to get you through this.
I know it sucks. It sucks. Can we just acknowledge for a second that this sucks?!. Okay. All right, Good. Now take action. It's time for you to decide that you are going to keep your business through this.
I've been reading a lot of mindset stuff in the last few days because I have the same issue. For my business (and there are some industries that right now are the busiest they've ever been.) My accounting firm is insane. Crazy-busy because it's technically tax season, even though they extend the deadline to July 15 for everybody - for all payments and for all tax returns. But I've got businesses that want help. They're applying for funding. They've got questions about how they are going to get through this. So, my firm is just crazy, crazy busy right now. But I know that's not the case for everybody.
It's funny because there's part of me that says, could we not be this busy right now? Because I don't have the bandwidth. But I've been doing a lot of mindset stuff, and looking at what I can control. What can I do? What processes can I put in place to make sure that I'm still getting things done?
It's about taking action. I know this is hard because you’ve got your kids home, and you've probably got other family members home. Your spouse is home. Your parents might be there, your siblings are with you. Your college kids are home. I get it. Things are crazy right now.
You may only have an hour, maybe two hours, to be able to do things for your business right now. It's critically important to figure out what are the things that have to get done. I will tell you that sometimes what has to get done changes after you've made your plan for the day.
Yesterday I had all these plans for what I was going to do. Then I started getting notified from clients that said, “Hey, the disaster relief application is out, can you help us with it?” And my entire day just pivoted.
I had to decide that, no, I'm not going to do what I was planning to do today. I'm going to go help people instead … which was absolutely awesome.
That leads me to my second point. You can control how you treat people, and yesterday was a great day because I got to help a lot of people yesterday.
How you treat people We get to control how we treat our employees, and we can control how we treat people when we’re going to the grocery store or getting delivery.
Funny story: Erik and I made this little sign that says “Thank You.” When we get something delivered, we knock on the window, and when the person turns around, we say “Thank you,” and hold up the sign. We wave and smile. We're trying to do what we can to treat people well because it's critically important. Everybody's on edge right now. Everybody is at the end of their rope. If we can't treat each other well, and with dignity and respect, this is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
You really can control how you treat people. Are you going to get into that fight with somebody online? Are you going to yell at the customer service person who picks up the phone?
You can decide.
I had to call Target the other day because they missed something in one of our orders and they charged us for it. It was something for Erik. But I always make sure one of the things that I do before I pick up the phone is take a couple of deep breaths and say “OK, who do I want to be on this phone call?” I want to be calm. I want to be nice. I want to show the person that I understand that they're going through a lot, and it's not their fault that my order was wrong.
That's an easy thing that we can do. My next point kind of ties into how you treat people.
How you lead How are you going to lead? How are you going to lead your team? What kind of example are you going to show? How are you not just going to lead the people inside your organization, but how are you going to lead your customers?
You are going to have customers that leave you. You are going to have customers who can't afford to pay you. You can lead with grace, and with strength, or you can not. I hope you choose well. I don't want you to choose NOT. This is a test of our leadership. This is a test of our character, and you can choose to lead well. You have control over HOW. I know it's hard.
It's interesting. In the last 20 years since I started my career, people say, "it's not personal, it's business." Right now, most of what's going on is not personal. It's business. There will be people who don't have the money to pay you. There will be people who are freaking out. We don't know what to do. And the way that you lead is really going to make a difference. Don't burn bridges right now, don't be angry right now, because these people may come back later on. It's critically important that we watch ourselves, we watch how we react, how we lead. Because it's just hard for everybody, right now. A lot of times, we're so caught up in what we're doing, where we are, that we're not thinking about our clients.
I have a lot of clients that their businesses are shut down and I'm respectful of that. I understand that some of my clients are going to pay me more slowly than normal. I understand that I have clients that are just freaked out right now. I'm trying to put myself in their shoes.
The more grounded that you are, the more centered you are, and the more you feel like you're in control, the more you can help other people.
I've had marketing folks reach out to me, asking, ``How can I connect my clients with you so you can help them with their loan applications?” I say… give them the same website I gave you and say “hey, this is available, you might want to talk to your accountant about it.” A lot of times they say No - if you're a marketer, don't be an accountant. If you're an attorney, don't be an accountant. We're trying to keep our boundaries, but I think that this at this time if you find information out there and it's a good source, like the SBA, share that with your customers, and your clients. Be a beacon of good information.
That's why it's critically important to have an email list. If you don't have one, start building one up. If nothing else, just say hey I'm going to share business resources to help you get through this, and start building up that list. There are a lot of people out there that are being silent. They're so worried about themselves, that they're not really growing. They're not trying to grow. They're just not in a good space right now.
So if you are in a good space - help other people. (I'm not saying work for free. I'm not saying that at all.) Reach out to people, send useful information. Build connections.
That's my fourth point today… you can control how many connections you make.
How many connections you make You can control how many people you reach out to. I have Bookkeeper Training School, and my bookkeepers want to reach out to people. and I say, OK, let's lead with helpful information and then, follow up with “Hey, if you need any help, I'm a bookkeeper and I'd be happy to help you.” But if you lead with “Hey, I'm a bookkeeper and I'm looking for new clients!” It probably won't be received very well right now. But you can lead with “Hey, here is some information about the new SBA loans. I don't know if you're familiar with this, but I just want to send this out to local businesses…” or I'm sending this out to the type of business that you want to work with.
When business owners make goals, their goal is about how many new customers they can get.
I can't control whether or not somebody signs with me. (And I also can't control the trash truck, honking at my son because it is trash day.) That's another thing we can't control. We can't control the background noise in our lives right now, which is fine because neither can anybody else. If you watch the news right now, you've got kids running around in the background of interviews and it's awesome! I just sit there as a small business owner and think, “This has been our life forever. Welcome!” I think it's awesome! It's great.
You can't control how many people sign with you, but you can control how many people you connect with. If you have a goal right now that has to do with signing clients or generating a certain amount of revenue, or anything like that, I would consider changing those goals to goals that you can control.
I can control how many people I connect with. I can control how many emails I send to business owners saying, “Hey, here's the SBA loan information in case you don't have it.” Those are the kinds of things I can control, But I can't control how other people are going to react. That's a really good thing to keep in mind all the time, but especially right now.
Those people who serve well, who lead well, are going to do very well coming out of this. I know because I've seen it before in other situations. Not necessarily this dramatic or this drastic, but typically, the people who lead well, are remembered. Keep that in mind with your business.
The things that you can control in your business You can control the actions that you take. (I'd highly recommend if you haven't looked into the SBA financing that you look into that because there's a lot of money out there and some of it you don't have to repay.) How you treat people, how you lead inside your organization and in your community, and how many connections you make through this.
I think it's incredibly important as business owners that we lead and we set the standard for how people should be treated right now.
If you have any questions or you need a link to the SBA financial assistance programs, you can go to SmallBizMama.com. Check out the show notes for Episode 2. I hope that you will listen to episode 3, which is out right now. And I hope that you will subscribe to this podcast on whatever platform you're listening on so that I can continue to bring you useful information and maybe a little bit of hope in times like this.
All right, guys, thank you so much. And I will see you next time. Thank you for listening to Small Biz Mama with Kristin Ingram.
If you like to learn how to create more margin in your life, please visit us at SmallBizMama.com
That's SmallBizMama.com
Links mentioned in this episode: Bookkeeper Training School
Small Biz Mama Coronavirus Resource Page
How to apply for SBA financial assistance
Episode 1 - Things You Can Control In Your Life
Episode 2 - Things You Can Control in Your Business
Episode 3 - Things You Can Control as a Parent
Link to Show notes*******
https://www.smallbizmama.com/episode-2-things-you-can-control-in-your-business/
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Welcome to Small Biz Mama. Episode 1. This is the first in three episodes where we're going to talk about things you can control in a time where it doesn't seem like there's much you can.
In this episode, we're going to talk about things you control in your life. Um, If you don't know me, I am a control freak. When all of this happened, II had a really, really hard time because I like controlling things around me, and I felt like I had lost an immense amount of control. I'm used to getting whatever I want from Amazon, and I can have my groceries delivered when I need too. I can go to the store and get whatever I need.
If you've never seen Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, we'll link it in the show notes for this episode, you can get at SmallBizMama.com. But I’m way down on base level, because I don't know where we're going to be able to get groceries from, and that’s very unsettling, right? I think a lot of us are feeling it right now. So, I want to talk a little bit today - because this has really helped me - I wanted to have a little bit in these next three episodes about things that you CAN control when you feel like everything is spinning out of control. And so I want to start by talking about things you can control in your life. because I really believe that unless you can get this part kind of dialed in, then your business and parenting, those tips aren’t going to be helpful. So let's focus on what we can control in our lives. I think the most basic thing that we need to remember that we can control - we can control how we wake up in the morning. That doesn't necessarily mean WHEN we wake up in the morning, but HOW we wake up.
How you wake up in the morning I have a toddler. I understand. It’s funny because his sleep schedule is kind of all over the place. He's two. Yesterday morning, he slept until almost 8:30 and then this morning he woke up at 6:30... so you can't really control most of the time when you wake up, necessarily, especially if you have young children. You can't control how you wake up.
I'm reading (I'm a little bit late to the party, this book came out a little while ago) The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins, which, if you haven't read it, I have a link in the show notes at SmalBizMama.com to the book. It's interesting because the thing I like about the book is that she talks about the 5 second rule and how it works, and it's really, really easy.
Any time you feel like you're just completely out of control, like things are just spinning, or you're about to talk yourself out of doing something that you know you need to do, like getting up, or reaching out to a client, or reaching out to a person, or just behaving the way that you want to behave, but your brain is talking you out of it. You just count down from five. Five, four, three, two, one. And you act.
It's funny... I'm doing this every morning to get out of bed, because there are some mornings I just want to curl back up and into bed until this is all over. But you know what? It's really, really helping. My alarm goes off in the morning, I do my countdown, and I pop up out of bed, and it's been incredibly helpful to get me moving during the day.
So, you can control how you wake up in the morning, You can control what you plan to do during the day. I have, in Evernote, a sample daily schedule. It is not perfect, but it reminds me of things - that I want to meditate when I wake up in the morning. I'm very fortunate that Jeff usually gets up with Erik if Erik wakes up before I'm moving. So I meditate for 10 minutes in the morning, first thing. I fill out my planner, I'm stretching. I'm taking a shower, and sometimes my stretching is while the shower is heating up. But it's something that gets my body flexible. I'm being intentional about how I'm playing with Erik, and I'll talk about that in episode three. I'm trying to get workouts in.
It's really funny because I think a lot of us talk about all the things that we wish we would do. If we have the time, what would we do? How would we take care of ourselves? Would we work out more? Would we go for walks? Would we spend more time with our children?
We have this opportunity, and rather than embracing it, we're freaking out.
There's a lot you can freak out about, but there's also a lot that we can not freak out about as well.
Let's talk about what happens after you wake up.
What you consume The next thing that we forget that we have control over is what we consume. This (smartphone) is dangerous right now because it links us to all the emergencies. All the breaking news, whether or not it's really breaking. They're just constant updates, constant information and we're refreshing all the time, right? So I'm choosing... I made the choice to stay off my phone, much more than I did even a week ago, because it's just debilitating.
Every time you hit refresh it is consuming some of your energy... some of your mental energy, some of your emotional energy. And with everybody being home and children being cooped up and not being able to see their friends, you need your emotional energy for more productive things.
Brendon Burchard gave a really good example. He's checking twice a day. Once at about noon and once in the late afternoon or early evening. I know that there's this fear that something could happen and we're not going to know about it. But if something major happens, make sure that you're signed up for your state's text alerts. The federal government can push notification through to our phones as the emergency management system. If something happens, your family will call. I'm not super worried that something major is going to happen and I'm not going to know about it because the world will let you know. But this constant scrolling through, it's just not it's not good for us. So I'm controlling what I can see.
How you react The third thing is, I'm controlling how I react. I think it's very easy for a lot of us to fall into depression, to be angry, and to want to lash out. That's a part of the reason I've had to control what I consume is because I see so many people out there not doing what’s recommended that we should be doing right now. It's a lot, and you can yell at people and even make comments, and you can post all over social media. Or you could say, “I'm not going to spend my energy on that right now. That's not a good use of my energy. I'm going to reserve my energy for my business, for my family, and for myself.”
We need to be strong right now, and using up all of your energy to react to things like that is not going to help keep you healthy. It's not going to help keep you sane, so I am controlling how I react to things.
What you put out into the world And then the last thing is, you can control what you put out into the world. You can choose to put out things that are useful, things that are helpful for people.
We have a whole page at SmallBizMama.com that's resources for how to home school, how to work from home, how to order groceries, how to do all sorts of things...virtual field trips! We've been assembling stuff from all over. That's a SmallBizMama.com if you wanna check it out.
We're choosing to put helpful things out in the world, to put positive things out in the world, because there're so many people that are complaining, that are putting out false information, they're not fact-checking things before sharing, and again, that's another reason why you want to kind of control what you consume.
We can spend all our energy being negative, complaining, being down, or we can try to put something better out there. One thing that I've been doing every day on my personal Facebook wall is I'm putting things I'm grateful for. Sometimes they're silly, sometimes there are little things, and sometimes they're things that are pretty big. One thing I was grateful for, yesterday was just being able to help so many businesses having this platform to be able to help people. That is so cool. That is so awesome to be able to do that.
I know that there are a lot of things that I can't control right now, but...
I can control how I wake up in the morning,
I can control what I consume.
I can control how I react.
And I can control what I put out in the world.
Having some concrete things that I know that I can control has really helped me mentally to be able to get through this.
I'm recording this on the last day of March, and we've been home for almost four weeks. (I tell ya, I was getting a little bit... batty, probably in the middle of last week.) I'm an extrovert, and this is really, really tough for me. But sitting down and re-centering on the things I CAN control has been incredibly helpful.
I hope that you'll take some time and generate a list of the things that you can control right now.
Listen to the next two episodes where I talk about business and parenting. And make a list for yourself of the things you can control.
I grew up Catholic, and there's a prayer that really helps me at times like this...
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can
and the wisdom to know the difference.”
That is so helpful at times like this.
I hope that you find something that centers you, that grounds you, and that you're able to take back just a little bit more control of your life.
Thank you so much for listening. And I hope that you will subscribe to this podcast as we put out more information for you to help you with your life, your business, and parenting
Thanks so much. I'll see you next time.
Thank you for listening to Small Biz Mama with Kristen Ingram.
If you like to learn how to create more margin in your life, please visit us at SmallBizMama.com.
That's SmallBizMama.com
Links mentioned in this episode: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins
Episode 1 - Things You Can Control In Your Life
Episode 2 - Things You Can Control in Your Business
Episode 3 - Things You Can Control as a Parent
Link to Show notes*******
https://www.smallbizmama.com/episode-1-things-you-can-control-in-your-life/
Mentions *******
https://www.smallbizmama.com
Follow Us *******
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/kristinlingramcpa
Small Biz Mama Podcast on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/smallbizmamapodcast/
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The Small Biz Mama on Instagram https://www.facebook.com/groups/smallbizmama/
Pinterest smallbizmama https://www.pinterest.com/SmallBizMama/
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr6kKxvKTAwf2mPNITooG1g
Hey, Mama. Welcome to the Small Biz Mama Podcast Episode 0. Today we'll talk a little bit about why we're here and why I hope you will listen. If you don't know me, my name is Kristin Ingram. I'll tell you a little bit more about myself after I talk about what I hope to accomplish here because ultimately, that is more important than who I am. My goal for this show is: in 15 minutes or less a week, I want to help you become a better businesswoman, to enjoy your life more, and to be the parent that you've always wanted to be.
That is what I am striving to do in my life. I am still learning. I'm still growing, and I know that I still have a long way to go. So for me, this podcast is about what I'm learning, what I've studied, what I've seen from other folks, what I’ve taught my clients, and things that I've learned along the way.
Who the hell am I? As I said, my name is Kristin Ingram. Some of you know me from a podcast that I had called Small Biz Life with my husband, Jeff. Jeff and I are still together. We're still doing amazing. And, if you listened to that show, towards the end of the show, you know that we have a son named Erik. Erik is now two and I just turned 40. Erik and I share a birthday, which is pretty cool, a day that Jeff will never forget.
Jeff and I have been married for 19 years in May, but we've been together for over 20 years and we both work from home for one of our businesses. I actually own two - I'm a certified public accountant, and I own a tax and consulting firm. We also own a company called Ingram Digital Media, which handles all of our educational products.
We have a course called Bookkeeper Training School where we teach moms how to create a full-time income while their kids are napping. That is a system that I had been playing with and had taught Jeff so that he could help me during tax season. Then we realized that there were a lot of moms out there that could benefit from learning this type of bookkeeping system. So that's what we teach. You could learn more about that at BookkeeperTrainingSchool.com. If you're interested, go check it out.
I also teach at a university. I've taught for over 10 years. I teach taxes at the graduate and undergraduate levels. And I love being a mom. I love our life and I love how fortunate we are to be able to spend so much time together. We actually enjoy spending that time together. And so for me, I am always looking for systems, where I can spend less time working and more time with Jeff and Erik, because ultimately, the most important thing for me is to spend time with them.
I'm also a cancer survivor, and that was one of the things that really woke me up as to what is important in life and what's not. It's hard sometimes when I see people get so bogged down in things that are just not important - you want to shake them and say, “Listen, it's really not that important. Don't waste your energy on that.” But it's really hard, I think, for people to understand that when they haven't gone through something life-threatening.
That's why this show is really important... to put things in perspective, to help you create better businesses, enjoy your life more, and be the kind of parent that you've always wanted to be.
What you’ll get out of the show Also - if you're not a parent, you're still going to get a lot out of the show. If you don't own your own business yet, but you're thinking about it, you're going to get a ton out of this show. You're going to get to see the behind the scenes of what it's like.
I hope that you will hit subscribe wherever you're listening. If you're listening through a podcast, or if you're watching us on YouTube, make sure that you subscribe to our show to get the new episodes as they come out.
I want to hear from you, so I'd love to have you connect with us. There's a bunch of different ways you can connect with the show. You can go to SmallBizMama.com. We're going to have show notes for all the episodes. We're going to be talking about a lot of tips and tools, and I'm going to be talking about a lot of different experts that I follow that I work with. All of that information will be in the show notes. You can connect with us there. You can contact the show. You can ask questions because ultimately, this show is for you. I want to make sure that I'm talking about the things that you need help with the most.
You can also find us on Facebook. You can look me up. My name is Kristin Ingram. You'll see my picture when you join. You can follow the Small Biz Mama Podcast on Facebook. I'm the Small Biz Mama on Instagram, and on Pinterest as well. I want to connect with you. I have a Facebook group that you can find through the Small Biz Mama Podcast on Facebook.
I want to be a resource for you. We've been really fortunate in our lives to be able to have this life where Jeff and I are home raising Erik while working our businesses. I know a lot of people look at that and think, “How do they do that? How is that possible?” That's really what this show is all about - to give you a peek behind the curtain so that you can see what your life could look like, to give you tips and say, you're almost there, but you feel like you're working too much or you're not able to spend the time with your kids that you want to have. You're not getting enough sleep, but you're working all the time. Whatever your thing is, we want to help you get to the place where you really feel like you know you're there, you're at the pinnacle, you've made it. And so that's what we're going to do here.
I hope that you hit subscribe when you're done listening to this episode so you'll get all of our future episodes. I'm going to keep them short. 15 minutes a week is going to be some really valuable time for you.
So, all right, Mamas, I will see you soon. Thanks so much. Take care.
Thank you for listening to Small Biz Mama with Kristin Ingram.
If you’d like to learn how to create more margin in your life, please visit us at SmallBizMama.com
Link to Show notes*******
https://www.smallbizmama.com/episode-0-confessions-of-a-small-biz-mama/
Mentions *******
https://www.smallbizmama.com
Follow Us *******
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/kristinlingramcpa
Small Biz Mama Podcast on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/smallbizmamapodcast/
Small Biz Mama Group on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/smallbizmama/
The Small Biz Mama on Instagram https://www.facebook.com/groups/smallbizmama/
Pinterest smallbizmama https://www.pinterest.com/SmallBizMama/
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr6kKxvKTAwf2mPNITooG1g