Share Your Knowledge

OK, so being the Green Entrepreneur that I am, I am always looking for new web site that I can use that might be beneficial to our company. Maybe they have a new tidbit of information on it or a cool way to layout your blog or what have you.

Well, today a ran accross Squidoo from the WAHM site. She has great resources on it for anyone (even WAHDs) that is trying to increase their traffic to their site or online marketing or whatever.

Its an interesting concept. Instead of continually updating your blog on a daily (or ever other day for that matter in my case) basis, its more of like a one-pager of information about anything you want to Squidoo about. For those of you who are passionate about being Green, you could include tips about Green living. For the Stay-at-Home crowd, you could write about tips for staying organized for the new stay-at-homers. When I went on there today and did a search, every topic under the sun had a Squidoo "Lense" as they call it. Everyone is an expert at something they claim on the site.

One really interesting possibility is that it has the potential to drive traffic to any site that you want to target, whether it is your blog, or another web site you promote or what have you.

A VERY cool feature of it is that there is the built-in ability to donate any proceeds you get from your site to charity. How cool is that?

I do not claim to be a Squidoo expert at all. But, I think I will give it a try and see how it works and what it does.

Has anyone else used Squidoo at all before and what results did they see?

What do you do? (Part II)

I've been asked on numerous occasions, "Do you really do that?" I find it an odd question but understandable. Most people do not realize that one can be a SAH parent AND be in charge of our own business. I''ll address those two topics in the next several paragraphs.

In terms of being a stay at home parent, I my wife and I have always thought (least for me and my wife) that if our life situation allowed, that one parent be there when the kids are at home. Its just part of what we wanted to be as a parent team when we first started thinking of raising a family. Now this I know is only true for our situation, and not true for all families. Some very successful families have both parents working full-time outside of the house. I tip my hat to them, I know my wife and I couldn't manage that. So, when the situation came up that my wife was going back to work, I didn't think twice (OK, maybe twice anyway) about staying at home with my kids. Its just part of what we do as a family. Or a solution to a problem so to speak. Both of us found it rewarding in different ways at different times.

In terms of being in charge of ones own business, well I'll definitely say that you have to want to do it. No bones about it, you gotta want to work at it. There is definitely alot of work involved, but there is an equal amount of reward as well. I don't mean entirely financial reward either. I greatly cherish the fact that I am the boss. How my business does is a direct reflection of how hard and how smart that my wife and I work at it. I've worked for other people and is not my cup of tea. I loved it in the Army when I was in charge, making all the decisions, calling all the shots.

What I am involved in now is a unique opportunity to both be a SAH parent and run my own business. It allows me to work on it when the kids are either at pre-school, or over at a friends house, or down for a nap or asleep for the evening. When they are awake, my focus is on them and what my family needs and wants.

I will tell you that for myself, I have found ample opportunity to work if as a SAH parent. You've just gotta decide to give up a few things. For example, I can't remember the last time I watched TV. Not interested in the least in it, except for the news and weather probably.
Being organized is key. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy other things as well. I ski, exercise, jam out on video games once in a while, love going to baseball games, hang out with my kids, etc. I just make the best use of my time that I can.

I'll admit what I do is not for everyone, but the rewards can be great. You can be there for your family, AND run your own business. I still coach my kids soccer team, drop them off for school, take them to piano, help them with their homework. Instead of leisure time, I work at my business. It's an awesome life in my opinion. Fun being there for my family AND having something myself.

I heard this somewhere and I think its a great quote. You have to create the future you want, it wont come to you by thinking about it! That's what I'm doing, creating the life I want and I love it!

Jolly Green Dad