Free Group Coaching Series

I have been writing about my free group coaching series that I am currently offering. I wanted to let you know that there is still time to get in on the fun. I am offering the next session is tomorrow at 11:00 EST. All you have to do is click on the link for my free coaching and sign up. You will get all the details emailed to you.

We had some great questions last week. If you have wondered about how you might start following a passion you have for baking/cooking, maybe I can offer some suggestions. I will share things I learned during the ten plus years I ran my home based corporate catering and gift basket company. I invite you to bring your questions and we can brainstorm together. If you have an idea, maybe we can figure out ways for you to start small and grow a business that you have just dreamed about until now.

I have been invited to do a podcast.

This is getting fun. A good friend, Joel Boggess is a coach who helps people “embrace your true self & find the work you love”. We are going to talk about the journey I have taken to transition from running the catering company to working with others who would like to learn avenues they might follow to make profits from their kitchens. Check out the podcast .

I hope you will check out the coaching call tomorrow. I would love to talk to you.

photo credit  bubolinkata

You might be able to bmake money at home.

Many states are adding “Cottage Laws” to their books. That is good news for people who would like to take their favorite family recipe and make money. A lot of would be “Mrs. Fields have been stopped in their tracks by the laws of their state. Some states have added, or are in the process of  adding, laws to permit home kitchens for production of some products. For the most part, those products that are allowed are foods that are not susceptible to food poisoning.  

That is great news, it will make it possible for a lot of people to generate income without the huge expense of putting in a commercial kitchen and a retail lease. Now it migt be possible that you can bake birthday cakes, cookies, pies etc and do it at home! The key word here is might. You have to check with the health department where you live to see if  will be able to do that.

States with Cottage Laws in Place Include:

Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, & Wyoming. Congratulations to those states!

States with Cottage Laws with Restrictions:

Alabama, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee

Pending Cottage Laws are in these states:

California, Colorado, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, & South Carolina

No Cottage Law States are:

Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Knasas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, & Rhode Island

Hooray for those of you that live in states with the laws, you might be able to be up and running quickly! For those of you whose states keep you from pursuing your dream, you might want to start a petition. For the time being though, you might be able to find a commerical kitchen you can use to get started.

If you would like to ask me some specific questions, you can check out my coaching program.

If starting a home baking business is a dream you have…..

I just want to invite you to listen to a podcast I just finished taping with Kelly McCausey. We talked about how I started my catering and gift basket business, and many of the lessons I learned along the way. Yep, I shared the good, the bad, and the ugly. You see, after more than 11 years in the business, I have learned a bit, and now I am sharing those lessons with others.

I invite you to check out the Free Group Coaching that I am offering later this week. I want to spend some time talking about your dreams and answering questions you may have. Lets talk about your business idea, and see if we can brainstorm ways for it to work.

If you would like to listen to the podcast with Kelly, we really had a great chat. Kelly shared important information every solopreneur needs to know. Grab a cup of coffee and kick back .

Listen to the free Solo Smarts Podcast

Please feel free to leave a comment

photo credit: Alessandra Cake Designer

Working from home is the dream of so many people. I was paying my bills the other day and one of them was my bill from the Health Department for the license on my in home commercial kitchen. It took me back about fifteen years when my dream was to somehow take my love
of baking and make money.

At the time, I would have loved to have a mentor who had done what I wanted to do. The problem
I ran into was that there are not many people who have an in home licensed commercial kitchen,
and potential competitors were not willing to answer my questions. I felt like a pioneer who
had to fordge the path without a compass. It was a little bit daunting to say the least.

Now, twelve years later, it dawned on me that I could do something to help others who have a similar dream. I can be there to answer questions for people trying to figure out some way to make money with their baking/cooking skills.

So, I am excited to tell you about a series of FREE group coaching I am offering. You can ask questions, and I will answer them to the best of my ability. You read that right, the series is FREE, no strings attached. Consider it my gift . The only thing I’ll ask in return is your help getting the word out. Thanks

Hate fundraising-Here is a unique fundraising idea that we have been using with youth groups for many years with great success. If the job of raising money to take your group to NCYC has fallen on your shoulders, I think I can help you. I don’t want this to sound like a scammy sales letter, I am just a mom of a large family who has been involved with youth groups fund raisers for more years than I want to admit to, okay, for 25+ years.

With that admission, you might guess I have more than a little experience. I have been helping churches raise money for that same length of time. I don’t want to drag this out to a long story about me, but if you are interested you can check out the About Me page

Fundraising for NCYC

Although I had been doing fundraising for various projects, NCYC became the focus when my daughter became the youth minister for our church. She realized that there were a lot of kids who simply could not afford to go to the National Catholic Youth Conference, and she wanted to make it possible for any kid who wanted to go to be able to.

She knew the amount of money that was easily made and we teamed up and got to work. You see, I am known as the “Cinnamon Roll” lady in these parts. There is a good reason for that, I make homemade cinnamon rolls for youth groups to sell after masses, and they make a lot of money with very little effort on their part. I want to invite you to watch the following video to hear about one sale we did last spring.

True story, and yes, Daniel is my son, but that is just one accounting of the many cinnamon roll sales I have done with the same results. I know what you may be thinking, if you don’t live here, what help is this to you? [Read more...]

Today I got up early to go out to and watch my son and about 800 others do a triathlon. It all started with 1000 meters of swimming, boy that looked like a long way to swim, but then I am not a swimmer.

Then out of the water and jump on the bike for a mere 18.5 miles of hilly terrain. That part was clearly the leg of the race he was dreading, but he did great. It ended with a 4.5 mile run. All told they covered over twenty miles in a race they had all trained for months, I call that intense focus. The point is that all of those people had intense focus in order to finish that race, and they got results.

I know how much time my son put into the training for that event. I know that if I had put that much intense effort into my business, I would make great strides. So, I made up my mind, I am going for it. I have signed up for a class that is really demanding. [Read more...]

Stay at Home Moms Can Earn Affiliate Income

If you have been searching for legitimate ways to make money at home, I recommend that you learn about affiliate marketing. I know that if you have spent much time here, you are probably interested in baking or making money with food. The thing is that there are multiple ways to make money centered around an interest in cooking or baking.

As you build your business, you want to make the foundation strong, and setting it up so that you have several sources of income is just good business sense. I have taken quite a bit of time lately to learn about affiliate marketing. It has taken awhile, but now I am seeing affiliate income come in and it is pretty cool! I like checking my computer to see that someone is sending a check or PayPal deposit.

The affiliate programs I recommend.

People ask me what affiliate programs are the best. It is a hard question for me to answer, because it depends on a lot of things. I know that sounds lame and I apologize, but there is more to it than just picking out an affiliate product and suggesting people buy it.

You need to remember that your job is to serve your customer. You only want to provide high quality products that will truly benefit your customer. It is best if you have experience with the product yourself so you can truly know what kind of experience your customer will have.

Let me tell you about a recent experience I had. On my other website, I primarily talk about using WordPress and doing affiliate marketing. With WordPress, frequent updates come out. You are advised to backup your computer before you do that. I have a plugin that does that automatically, so I usually just do the automatic upgrade, no big deal. [Read more...]

Bob’s Red Mill Invites Oatmeal Lovers to “Spar for the Spurtle”
Contest provides chance to win spot in the 2011 Golden Spurtle World Porridge Making Championship in Scotland

Portland, Ore. – June 29, 2011 – Think that you have what it takes to dish up the world’s best bowl of oatmeal? Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods, official purveyors of “The World’s Best Oatmeal,” wants to find out.

The company announced today the launch of its “Spar for the Spurtle” Porridge Making Contest. The contest invites home cooks and professional chefs alike to submit videos demonstrating a unique recipe that makes use of Bob’s Red Mill Steel Cut Oats – the World’s Best Oats. From the entries, three finalists will be flown to Portland, Ore. to compete in a live cook-off. The winner of that cook-off will travel with the Bob’s Red Mill team to compete in the 18th Annual Golden Spurtle World Porridge Making Championship in Scotland. [Read more...]

Making Money at Home

Go to Work

Today more and more people want to take the “Go to” out of that phrase. Working from home is the dream job many have set as their goal. Better yet, being their own boss AND earning money from home is a highly sought after lifestyle.

The good news is that more and more people are making that a reality. The bad news is that many are influenced by late night commercials & internet schemes laden with empty promises. They believe that they will make millions putting in only a few hours a week. That is baloney.

I want to share some sage wisdom (you can only get that by being on the planet for awhile-I qualify). The truth of the matter is that in order to be successful either in business or as an employee, w-o-r-k plays a vital role. Whether at home or punching a time clock, you still have to put in a lot of effort to be successful.

Why do people want to work from home?

I know there are a lot of stay at home moms who have chosen to make mothering their primary career at this point in their lives. I also know there are a lot of baby boomers who have reached a point in their lives where they want to do something meaningful, that they love. Many people want the convenience of an at home job. Lots of folks see the need to conserve our natural resources and realize that it helps the planet to when you eliminate a commute. [Read more...]