Boost Your Business

Do you own or run one of the millions of small businesses that make America great?
Do you know how you would use $50,000 in cash and $50,000 in premier advertising on Forbes.com to make your small business even better?

Entry deadline is June 30, 2009

Go to http://boost09.perfectprize.com/ for more information.

Martha Stewart’s 3rd Annual Dreamers into Doers contest

The contest will honor two women who turned their passion into a business or philanthropic venture - just as Martha did. Tell your store in 250 words or less for a chance to win $10,000 and appear on “The Martha Stewart Show.”

Go to http://dreamers.marthastewart.com/ for more information.

My Wordless Wednesday photo. Inspired by Father’s Day, I just love pictures of Dad’s and their kids. This is my Hubs and Bizzie Boy, taken a couple of months ago.

Happy Wordless Wednesday Everyone!

Do you have a vision board? Do you believe they work? My husband and I created a vision board sometime last year. Mine was recently cluttered with important phone numbers, orders and a bunch of other junk.

After they selected the winners (not me) of the Kodak Print and Prosper BlogHer scholarship, my husband said, “It wasn’t on your vision board.”

WHAT!

I actually completely forgot about my vision board, I mean sure it sits right in front of me as I write my blog posts and process orders, but I never really looked at it anymore. So I decided to dust off my vision board and clear out all of the junk. This is what’s on my vision board now.

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Mom Entrepreneur: Laura Dickinson
Business: Spree Fashions Inc.
Website: www.spreefashions.com

Spree Fashions is a distribution company, offering some of the most popular, trendiest and hottest lines from the United States, Canada, Brazil, Netherlands and other parts of the world. Every season brings new designs – the latest innovations, colours and trends that we are excited to share, encouraging the success of our retailers and suppliers alike. Our lines include footwear, clothing and accessories with well known brands such as Mim-pi, Monster Republic, Baby Lulu, Sweet Shoes, Bical, Bees & Dragon, Jazzy Toes, MP Socks & Tights, Picaflor and Rainbow Steps

Our main focus is managing import/export activities, logistics, sales and order management and marketing. We become the representative of the manufacturer in all aspects other than the design and manufacturer of their product. We work jointly with all partners to ensure success across all business practices.

What inspired you to start your business?
A few things.

1. Always had an inner drive to be an entrepreneur. It makes me feel energized, connected with purpose.
2. A change in career to spend more time with my kids, which working in the corporate world did not allow for.
3. Following my own direction, learnings, skill development - not having to complete course requirements based on broad brushing corporate demands.

How long have you been in business?
4 years
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My daughter loves the I SPY A to Z books, especially during bed time because it takes much longer to look for a picture than listen to a book. I know its a stall tactic on her part, but at least she is improving and hardware is appearing on the first page.

Price: $13.99

Guess what? BizzieMommy.com is giving away the ULTIMATE I SPY PACKAGE to 1 Lucky winner and 4 others will win the NEW I Spy A to Z book!

How to Enter

1. Stop by the I Spy website and let us know what you liked best.
2. Tweet the contest for a 2nd chance to win, don’t forget to leave a comment letting us know.

Prizing and Information
One (1) Grand Prize winner receives a Grand Prize Pack including:

* Wii Video Game ‘Ultimate I SPY’
* Board Game ‘I SPY Memory Game’
* I SPY A to Z: A Book of Picture Riddles
* I SPY Treasure Hunt

Four (4) runner-up winners receive a copy of the new book

* I SPY A to Z: A Book of Picture Riddles
About the Book
Easy-to-read riddles by Jean Marzollo are paired with forty-six object-filled photographs by Walter Wick to create I Spy A to Z, the most engaging alphabet book ever! With more than thirty titles and 36 million books in print, the I Spy series continues to win the hearts and minds of parents and kids everywhere.

Contest Rules
Contest ends July 6, 2009. Winners will be selected and announced on July 8, 2009.

If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.
- Jim Rohn

As most of you know I am participating in the first 10-week SparkPlugging internship. If you haven’t checked out the sparkplugging.com website it’s a great resource and community for entrepreneur parents, work at home parents and any other home business owner.

With five more weeks to go in the internship I’m excited to learn about marketing, monetizing and expanding both my online business and blogs.

Here are some of the recent articles that I either appear in or have written.

• And the Sparkplugging Interns Are
• Meet our interns Stephanie Elie
• 25 WAHM Blogs Were Reading
• Does Popularity Equal Powerful Influence
• 10 Influential Mom Bloggers
• From the Interns Stephanie’s Favorite Sparkplugging Posts
• Follow Friday the Intern Edition

Did you get you vanity URL on Facebook tonight? I wasn’t sure what to pick. Do I go with BizzieMommy, Stephanie Elie, or Selie Creative. I settled on Stephanie Elie?

You can now view my Facebook profice via http://www.facebook.com/stephanie.elie!

Have we connected yet?

I just ordered these really cute mini cards from Moo and I can’t wait to put them to use at the next meet up or conference.

Moo Cards are very easy to make. You can make standard business cards, minicards, postcards, greeting cards and Christmas and Holiday cards. I decided to get the MiniCards. Ellen from Zoom Album introduced them to me when we were at the Startup Princess event @ Disneyland.

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