Moms in Business

Moms & Money: Top 5 Free Tools to Make Finances Fabulous!

Moms & Money

Moms are responsible for most of the household spending – from groceries, to school clothes, to new curtains, most of the family shopping is up to us. So why is that so many women don’t know much about financial tools and planning? Sure – we may be great at clipping coupons and sticking to a budget, but there are way too many women who don’t know enough about their personal finances, or have a plan for their future. After talking with some girl friends this weekend, I found that this is often because so many finance articles, books, and websites are written to target guys – making the info not relevant to us, or just plain boring. That led me to put together this list just for you ladies – I’ve rounded up some great tools and resources focused on moms and money that are all fun and simple to get started with.

My Top 5 Free Financial Tools for Moms

Whether you’re a busy stay-at-home mom, a mompreneur, a mom who commutes to the office each day, or even a single gal in need of some finance tips – I think you’ll find a few great tips here to help. And if you have some favorites that aren’t on this list, I’d love for you to share them in the comments, so everyone can benefit from your genius money tips too!

Free Financial Bootcamp: Get a daily email for 10 days, with new daily to-do’s that will help you reach your financial goals. You’ll figure out where you’re overspending, create a budget you can actually stick to, and learn to dream big and plan for a fabulous future. This is one of my favorite sites, and is filled with info that makes finance fun and fashionable. I know you’ll love it too. Learn more and sign up here – Free Financial Bootcamp for Women.
Free Book and Worksheets: Visit a totally fabulous site – Mainstream Mom – to get access to a huge resource of great $mart Mom Printables, from meal planning to paying off debt. And make sure to grab her free ebook too, 7 Simple Strategies to Take the Stress Out of Money Management. Between the website and the book, there is loads of amazingly helpful info here.
TurboTax Free Tax Assistance: This is how I’ve done my taxes every year since I was 20 years old. It worked great for my simple returns then, and has worked just as great as I’ve gotten older, and had more complicated returns. This year, since it is my first year earning a business income from my blog and freelance work, I’ll have to get some help from a local accountant. But after that, I’m confident that I can go back to TurboTax – It’s such a great tool, and the perfect solution for people who want to do their taxes themselves.
Free Workshop: This is only 30 minutes long, but it sounds like it’ll be packed full of great info! This webinar is a partnership between Daily Worth and Mint – both are a couple more awesome sites that I totally love. This event happens on a Thursday, March 8th, at 8pm EST. You can register here – Take Control of Your Finances– and learn how to better understand your money and make smarter choices every day. Daily Worth is a cool community of women who talk money advice – sign up for their daily updates for awesome info.
Mint.com: Speaking of Mint… This is my FAVORITE tool for managing my money. It’s super simple {and free!} to get started, and very intuitive and easy to figure out. You can organize all of your spending – see all of your accounts in one place, set budgets, track your expenses, and more. This is a total must-have for busy moms, seriously.
Mompreneur’s Challenge: Join the 30-day Mompreneur’s Challenge, and get a new challenge emailed to you each day. Business Among Moms describes it, “Our Challenge is a series of 30 tasks in the areas of marketing, budgeting, social networking, organization and networking that will allow you to re-focus, learn new things and move forward as a professional mompreneur!” I signed up today, and am excited to see how it goes. I’m always on a mission to learn new tips!

What do YOU think?

Do you have a favorite online tool that you use to track your spending, grow your business, or plan for the future? Do you have any great money tips for moms? I’d love for you to share in the comments! And if this post helped you out, make sure to give it a retweet, and share it with your own networks of busy moms too. I look forward to reading the tips that you guys have to share here – You have such great ideas!

I just learned the top 5 free online tools that help busy moms make their finances fabulous – #Moms & #Money sunshineandsippycups.com/2012/02/moms-m…

— SunandSipCups (@SunandSipCups) February 28, 2012

Posted by Meagan Paullin on February 27, 2012 Filed Under: Busy Mom Solution | 3 Comments

Working Together to Support Busy Moms

“I not only use all the brains I have, but all I can borrow.” – Woodrow Wilson

I love this quote… And I think that it applies perfectly to the idea of being a Mompreneur. Being a mom is a busy job in itself. When you add in the housework, running kids around, meals, and time with your Mister – it starts to get a little stressful. When you add a full-time job on top of that – Whew! Life can get a little bit overwhelming, right? So, as busy moms, we need to support each other in every way that we can. Moms are smart, and when we work together, we can do some pretty great things! That’s my passion here with this site – finding and sharing the best Busy Mom Solutions – to help solve some of those challenges we all face. And as a mompreneur myself, I understand how tough it can be to run a business while also running a household, so I love to support other women in business. Which is why I am excited to introduce you to a couple of great sites today – Seed Mommy and The Mommy Shops!

Why these sites rock

The Mommy Shops is a unique marketplace featuring products made by, sold by and invented by Moms. As a Mompact consultant, I’ve seen how very hard mom business owners work to build their brands, market their companies, and balance it all while taking care of their family too. It is so very important that whenever we can, we moms shop other Mom Businesses. We are helping them make ends meet for their family, keeping them home with their kids instead of working outside the home and helping them grow their business one sale at a time. Target and Walmart won’t miss you. It can be so tough for smaller, mom-owned businesses to get their products marketed to a large audience, since they just can’t compete with the huge resources that the big brands have. So The Mommy Shops is a great solution that helps us all work together to support each other:

If you’re a mom with a business: It’s only $3.99 a month to feature your products with them in your own Mommy Shop, which is an amazing way to work together with other business-minded moms and boost your brand!
If you’re a mom who shops: And of course you are, right? We moms do the majority of the family shopping. You can visit one of the great shops on their site, and use your purchasing power to support other moms!

I love sites that make it easy for me to do something good – And using my dollars to support great women making great products is perfect. You know that when moms invent a product, it’s because they saw a challenge in their busy life, and wanted to solve it. And moms put so much heart into what they do – ensuring that get not only an awesome product, but also a wonderful experience too.

Seed Mommy – Your Mompreneur Resource

The Mommy Shops has a partner site too – SeedMommy.com is their advice site. There you’ll find resource info on how and where to market your Mom Owned Business, and tools to help it grow. They even have a great giveaway going on now – one lucky winner will receive a prize package that includes lots of free advertising, a brand makeover including new logo, SEO Services, PR services, and so much more. They’ll also share information on the fabulous services SeedMommy has used over the years to help them grow. This could be a great boost to your business – and you can enter until March 30th, 2012.

Enter The Mommy Business Makeover Contest!

While your there, check out the other great services that they offer, too. You can add your blog or business to their directory – it’s only $10 to join the SeedMommy Business Directory for a full year. That’s less than a $1 per month! And make sure to sign up for their newsletter, to stay updated on great new updates. Whether you’re a blogger, in direct sales, run an Etsy shop or sell your own invented products – SeedMommy can be a great resource for you.

Social Media Junkie?

I’m a total social media junkie – so I love to find great new companies to follow. It’s the easiest way for me to stay updated on things, since I’m always checking my profiles throughout the day! And you’re in luck – both SeedMommy and The Mommy Shops can be followed…

Find SeedMommy and The Mommy Shops on Facebook, and follow them on the fabulous Pinterest too!

Posted by Meagan Paullin on February 27, 2012 Filed Under: Busy Mom Solution | 3 Comments

UPrinting Business Boost Giveaway – $50 Value!!

UPrinting Giveaway!!

The amazing crew over at UPrinting is super generous, and is sponsoring another great giveaway! One lucky winner will get to design a custom package of flyers – and get 250 of them printed totally free! This is great for business owners, bloggers, Etsy shops, direct sales reps – anyone with a product, service, or site to promote.

Prize Package Details:

250pcs. Flyers for one winner
4.25″ x 5.5″, 4″ x 6″
14pt Cardstock Gloss, Front Only Printing,
Nightclub flyer templates and business flyer templates also available for download.
3 Business Days Turnaround
Free US shipping only

Learn more and see some examples of great business flyer designs on their site. This is a value of almost $50 bucks – and an awesome way to start promoting your business in the new year!

Interested in using UPrinting for YOUR business needs? You can get a free sample package of your choice, to see the great quality of their products yourself. — Request Free Sample Package.

Enter to WIN!

Use the easy peasy Rafflecopter form to enter the giveaway – and don’t forget to come back each day for your daily bonus entries! Good Luck!

{Disclaimer: I was provided with a complimentary set of flyers from UPrinting to review. I look forward to showing you the finished product soon – and am excited that one of you lucky fans will get to win a set too!}

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Posted by Meagan Paullin on December 12, 2011 Filed Under: Giveaways | 1 Comment

{Direct Sales Directory} Staci Shares Her Inspiring Story!

Staci from Arbonne

You’ve met Staci from Arbonne before – I shared a little bit about how she got started with Arbonne, and what excites her about her business. And you can find her contact info in the Beauty, Skin Care, and Cosmetics category of the Direct Sales Directory. You can email her anytime if you have questions about products, and she’ll give you personalized suggestions on what would be best for you. And if you’re interested in building your own Arbonne business in the new year – she would love to have you join her team!

Read Staci’s Inspiring Story –

Arbonne is all about ordinary people, like me, achieving extraordinary things. It’s all about empowering yourself, as well as others, to develop the innate abilities, talents and natural success that every last one of us possesses. As my team grows, my dedication to Arbonne grows. As I move through the ranks of District Manager, to Area Manager, I am bringing people along for this outrageous ride! I want people not just from Long Island, New York, but also Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and any other person out there in any other state in the U.S.A. to join me!

Her Personal Goal is Empower other Women!

It’s my goal, in my life, to make sure everyone that I meet, knows about Arbonne products. How they are pure, safe and beneficial for people to use on themselves, their family and their friends. I would never use any other products on my kids, nor would I ever use any other products on myself! As I reach out to show people these amazing gifts I have, I’m always on the lookout for those who want to EMPOWER themselves. Those who want financial freedom. The freedom to work for themselves and never have to answer to their boss, or ask their boss for a day off to spend with their sick child, or to spend time away on a vacation for Spring Break!

Imagine what you can achieve…

I’m in search of those who want to drive a car, without having to PAY FOR THE CAR! Not just any car, a White Mercedes Benz of YOUR CHOICE. It’s your name on the Title, not Arbonne’s name. They just pay for the car! I want to find people who crave traveling, because when you do Arbonne FULL OUT, you earn trips to places like Atlantis, Bahamas, NYC and Hawaii. There is no better place to be right now, then Arbonne. It’s not just the money you make, the products you will share, or the trips you’ll earn, or the car you’ll drive – it’s about the lives you will change with this gift of Arbonne.

Arbonne provides for her family

My favorite part about Arbonne is being able to leave my business to my family. TWO GENERATIONS of my offspring will benefit from my hard work, dedication and LOVE of Arbonne. No corporate job ever offered me anything like that. I’d be lucky if I was allowed to pay for my own medical insurance, maybe get a life insurance policy thrown in.

And I started it all with just a couple hundred dollars for my ID number and some Gold Bags to share with the world.

Join my team, become a preferred client, or become a client. Any way you dice it, Arbonne is going to change your life for the better. Join me over at my site, www.stacigerardi.myarbonne.com, get to know me and sign up!

The Direct Sales Directory

Staci’s story is exactly what I love to promote with my Direct Sales Directory! As busy moms, it can be really difficult to find income options that are flexible enough to allow us to play an active role in our families lives, while also be rewarding enough to be worthy of the time and effort we put into them. You can browse the great companies listed in the directory to find the one that is the perfect fit for YOU and YOUR family! Build your own business, be your own boss – And build a better future today!

Are you a Direct Sales Consultant who is excited about sharing your business? Learn more about the how to join the Direct Sales Directory today!

Posted by Meagan Paullin on December 4, 2011 Filed Under: Shopping | No Comments

Start Earning Today – Avon Gives You Unlimited Opportunities!

Want to Earn Extra Holiday Cash?

Avon has products for everyone – from the amazing Anew skin-care line, to the trendy cosmetics and accessories from Mark, to the new super-fun baby products in the Tiny Tillia line – even great stuff for guys too! Such an extensive selection, all at really affordable prices, makes it so easy to sell!

Tomorrow Starts Today! Start reaching your goals!

Whether you’re entering the workforce, returning after the kids are grown, or just want to be your own boss, becoming an Avon Independent Sales Representative offers unlimited opportunities. Even if you’ve never sold a product before, you can do it – with Avon. As the world’s leader in anti-aging skincare, fragrances and color cosmetics, we make it easy for you to sell and succeed, right away!

Earn from home, and earn online. Be your own boss! Learn more about the earnings opportunity of becoming an AVON representative and join today! Click Here to get started!

Why Direct Sales?

Direct Sales gives busy moms what they need most – flexibility and freedom! YOU set your hours. YOU decide how much you want to earn. And YOU run your own business, the way YOU want. If you’re interested in checking out some other amazing companies you can join – Check out the Direct Sales Directory! New businesses are being added daily, and you can access it easily whenever you visit Sunshine and Sippy Cups, just by clicking the Directory tab up top in the navigation bar.

Check out the Directory today – and find YOUR perfect fit!

Posted by Meagan Paullin on November 3, 2011 Filed Under: Shopping | No Comments

Supporting Women in Business – A New Way to Shop Handmade!

Introducing a New Way to Buy Handmade…. Crafty Attic!

CraftyAttic.com is a brand new site that just launched in September. Their goal is to provide crafters a new venue for sharing their amazing handmade products – as well as give lovers of those crafty goods a way to purchase them at big discounts!

Women’s Small Business Month

Did you know that the month of October is officially Women’s Small Business Month? Shopping at Crafty Attic is a great way to show your support for other women in business! When you buy a handmade item, you’re using YOUR power as a consumer to help support another hard working mom, instead of just a big corporation. And in return you get one-of-a-kind, handmade, quality goods – not some mass-produced item. Love that.

Are you a Crafter?

Learn more about the great opportunities for handmade crafters that Crafty Attic offers by visiting their website.

You can apply to be a Featured Seller, offer to partner with them for a fun giveaway, and learn more about being a vendor. This is a wonderful opportunity to extend your reach, and share the products that you put so much heart into with a whole new audience!

Do you support Handmade?

Then you will LOVE Crafty Attic! They share some of the best crafters, artists, Etsy Shops, and Suppliers – and offer them at great discounts too! Plus, every week they have a brand new giveaway you can enter – and I know you guys LOVE a good giveaway.

More about the site:

“Crafty Attic offers daily deals on craft supplies, handmade goods, and vintage findings brought to you by artists, crafters, and independent suppliers. Our hope is to connect our featured sellers to new customers who will help their businesses thrive.”

What are you waiting for?

Head on over to Crafty Attic today, and sign up for their Daily Deals Newsletter today – so you can start shopping their great selection of handmade goods, and enter their weekly giveaways too!

Posted by Meagan Paullin on October 8, 2011 Filed Under: Shopping | No Comments

Sample: A FREE Child Theme for WordPress- Download Today!

Studiopress has a big announcement…

They released a new FREE Child Theme for the Genesis Framework. Quite appropriately, it’s called SAMPLE.

This will only work if you’re already on the Genesis framework, which seriously, I totally recommend. I’m LOVING the upgrade to this system- amazing.

Get a Free Download of new Sample Child Theme for Genesis today!

If you want to check out the FREE DOWNLOAD of this theme, head to the Studiopress site to read some info, or just click here to get a Demo of the new Sample Child Theme, to see what you think. If you love it, download it today!

What do you think?

Are you going to use this? Wouldn’t it be a fun one to customize? It’s actually meant specifically for bloggers, and there are a ton of really cool features in it. If you decide to download it and use it, leave me a link in a comment so I can check out your site!!