I was invited to speak at the Orem Small Business Developement Center on the topic ‘Marketing Strategies for a Home Based Business’. I shared with the class attendees my top at home business ideas for marketing their businesses. I feel honored to have been given the opportunity to address them. I believe I was chosen to address this issue because my business has done so well. Even in this tough economy. I tripled my client base and doubled my income this past year. I am a business strategist and my marketing campaigns have something to do with this, but the main reason my at home business has done so well is because I am very good at doing something that services a growing need, returning order and simplicity to someone’s life…plain and simple! As a Utah based professional organizer and a national online show organizing expert, I help people set up office systems that work and continue working as time goes on…plain and simple!

Class attendees below are the links and additional information I promised you. Remember, before you go any further, you promised to leave a tip for other blog visitors at the top of this post by clicking on comments THEN sharing a marketing tip that has worked well for you or someone you know. If you just happened upon this post titled ‘At Home Business Ideas’and did not attend my class, please share a tip with us before you read on. I am a believer in sharing our successes with others. Now that you have completed that, here is the information I promised you:

• A list of the best blog directories to which you should join: Technorati, Blog Catalog, and Google Blogs
• A great book on writing your own Press Release by my mentor Janet Meiners Thalaer. Click here to find it on Amazon
• The place where you can submit your own Press Release announcing your blog, business, or important business happenings.
• An easy way to send email newsletters, manage your subscriber lists, and track campaign performance with MailChimp. FREE if you have less than 500 subscribers
• Affiliate Marketing Partnership options found at: Commission Junction or Linkshare.

In my opinion, when dealing with at home business ideas and marketing strategies, there are a few things you should avoid:

• Spending your scarce marketing budget on PR firms or major advertising campaigns
• Spending too much money in the beginning
• Investing in expensive marketing materials that soon become obsolete or outdated

If you have not yet designed your own business plan click here for a business plan template.

If you are interested in hiring me to help you simplify your life and better organize your office spaces, papers or computer data, OR you would like to know more about marketing strategies for your home based business please contact me at www.OrganizingMindOverMatter.com

As part of January 2010 National Get Organized Month I am pleased to offer you this FREE downloadable form focusing on balancing work and family life. By investing 10 minutes each week YOU will become a life balance for women pro. Click here to download your quick and easy Life Balance Worksheet.

Please share with other visitors your favorite life balance tip(s) by leaving a comment. You can do this by clicking on the green numeral next to the word “comments” above.

If you are expecting marital success, then planning for success in your blended family, can be easier achieved with some environmental home tips:

Remember to:

• Be realistic
• Be patient AND
• Limit your expectations

Click here to listen to Blended Family Tips part 1 & 2 by my dear friends, Janet and Lisa, on my online show The Organized Woman Show.

Click here to find some great information and to answer the question, What is a blended family? by family help

One more good information article I found while researching, Creating a Happy Blended Family by suite 101.

Home Organizing Workshops

Join Vicki for any or all of the 3 classes she will be teaching during the month of January 2010 in conjunction with National Get Organized Month. The class information is listed below. If you have any questions about the Utah professional orgainzer, Vicki Winterton, and her organizing classes please contact us.

“I just wanted to say thank you for your time in teaching me about time management. As you promised, the “Action File” has changed my life. I’m able to stay on top of the paper mess that comes into my home. I knew the importance of daily maintenance prior to your class (I only learned this in the last year!), but you’ve taught me how to perform daily maintenance on the paper mess, not just tidying the house. Wow! What a great thing!” –Diane, 2009 UVUcommunity education class

Are you tired of making New Year’s Resolutions that, by the end of January, have become another failed attempt at improved self image or moral? Each resolution you set represents a longing of the heart, a personal stretch toward better health, more happiness, or increased wisdom. THIS YEAR  try a new approach. By working on one resolution or goal at a time and following my few simple steps below you will find success in making and keeping your New Years Resolutions.

To begin, make a list or a photo board of your successes this past year. Don’t be modest; make sure you note the learning and the progression that happened.

Next, begin the process of defining your new goals by setting up major goals broken into smaller goal steps:

1. Personalize your goals. Make them specific to you. Use the words “I” and “me” often. Realize you need to focus in on YOU in this step.
2. Write as if you had already accomplished the goal.  Use such terms as “I have”, “I see”, “I feel”, etc.
3. Adjectivize (my own word) the benefits of the Resolution. Use lots of descriptive words to explain the benefits of achieving your goals and resolutions. Words such as: calming, peaceful, energized, terrific, etc.
4. Calendar and schedule with (a) beginning, (b) progression, and (c) completion dates.

Reward yourself with prizes or recognitions of achievement not only when you complete your set goal, but also each day you actively work toward your desired resolution.

Complete THEN Repeat. When you have completed your first New Years Resolution, begin on goal #2. However grand the change we hope for, the vehicle for change is small, simple, daily steps that move us forward. It is the step by step changes each day and week that transport a new goal or resolution to completion. Change is ALWAYS hard for us to make. Be sure you  don’t overwhelm yourself by working on too many goals at once.

If you would like to receive my New Years Resolutions/New Goals Template, please leave a comment on this post and share with us what YOUR top three New Years Resolutions are this year. We love to hear from you!

For many years, I stored my own Christmas decorations in any one of  the 14 holiday boxes lining my garage shelves.  I often felt overwhelmed at the prospect of getting all those Christmas Storage boxes emptied before Christmas and restocked after the holidays. Then I developed a better system that now makes holiday decorating and take-down much simpler. My Christmas storage has become manageable.

I was an invited guest writer for my local newspaper, The Daily Herald, last year and wrote a full article containing my formula for boxing up ANY holiday.  Click here to read the full details of the article dated 12/2008 and titled, Packing up the Holidays OR listen to my online talk show number 024 titled Christmas Storage by clicking this link.

You can do this…It takes just a little longer as you pack up your holiday decor, but saves you lots of stress and time each year from here on in. Organizing your Christmas storage is worth your time and effort this year…YOU CAN DO THIS!

Please leave a comment sharing a tip on how you have simplified your holiday storage. We love to hear from you!

Blending a family of any variety is an obstacle course with many hardships already built-in to jump over & climb above. The holiday season is especially hard because of all the memories (bad AND good) that come attached to each blended family member.  This week I invited my friend and neighbor, Janet Peterson, mother of 11 children combined, to share some Blended Family Holiday Tips. Listen here to show #023. My friend Janet has maneuvered the course for many years and has been successful! She shares specifics on holiday activities and traditions that have worked for her blended family over the years. A few suggestions include these:

You control Christmas OR Christmas controls you. By learning to simplify Christmas through Holiday Planning this holiday season can be both peaceful and joyful.

I was invited again to do a Studio 5 TV segment titled “Overcome the Overwhelm: Tips to Simplify Christmas”. I shared some great tips for Holiday Planning including some clutter-free gift ideas to make this holiday season easy to manage.

The three tips I shared for better holiday planning were:

1. Make a list of ALL your holiday plans, activities and events, THEN PRIORITIZE your list.
2. Schedule your “Must Do’s” on your December Calendar. Then add in pencil your “Might Do’s”. (see below to print your own Calendar pages)
3. Simplify EVERYTHING you’ve kept on your calendar.

To receive a FREE copy of your very own Christmas Holiday Planner pages, click any of the page links below you would like to have. These are PDF pages and will print just as they are shown. Please leave a comment telling us what you have found to be a “must do” holiday tradition for you or your family.

1. Christmas Holiday Planner (cover page)
2. Holiday VALUES Analyzer
3. Holiday Priorities List
4. December 2009 Calendar
5. Holiday Family Traditions
6. Holiday Decor Inventory
7. Gift List Planner
8. Gift Closet Inventory
9. Holiday Meal Planner
10. AFTER the Holidays Analyzer

We had 75 entires in our drawing and I am pleased to announce that Heather McDonald of Pleasant Grove is the LUCKY WINNER of the Smith’s Food Stores gift card center $100 certificate. She will be able to choose any combination of gift cards from the more than 300 retail stores sponsored and stocked through Smith’s Food & Drug Stores. To enter, Heather subscribed to The Organized Woman Show by email. YOU can subscribe too, right below the show summary (scroll down one or two inches to find it on the left hand side). Click on the link and fill in your email address. You will then be asked to go to your email inbox and finalize the request. It is very easy; 1,2,3 and you are signed up. Once signed up you will be entered in the Smith’s gift card drawing AND will receive weekly updates of new shows with easy tips to help you better plan and organize yourself, your home, your workplace, your family and/or your career.

My online radio show, The Organized Woman Show has many new shows to help you maneuver the holidays easily and with greater finesse. Click on the link above to listen and learn. Some of the shows my co-host and I have recorded this month include:

• 025  Goal Setting including Resolution tips
• 024  Organize your Christmas Decor Storage
• 023 Blended Family Holiday Tips with special guest Janet Peterson
• 022 Organizing a last minute Party
• 021 Winter’s Fun Family Traditions with special guest Cindi Barton
• 020 Clutter Free Gift Ideas
• 019 Preparing a Holiday Meal
• 016 Preparing For House Guests

Just think of it, for ½ the cost of a new desk or ½ the cost of a new TV set, YOU OR SOMEONE YOU LOVE can receive the gift of peace! In fact, I guarantee greater peace of mind!

Imagine the opportunity to organize your home spaces or business office spaces so they are easily maintained for $500 or less at my special Christmas rates?

Suggest this gift option to those buying gifts for you OR give this gift to someone you love who has tried and just doesn’t have the know how to make it happen on their own.

Organizing Gift Certificates Available

Contact me now for organizing help once and for all at 801-623-8411

Winter Season Traditions

Building a stronger family unit is the goal of every mother I know! Holiday Family Traditions are a great way for families to come together to celebrate the fun and festivities of the winter season. I just produced show 021 titled Winter’s Fun Family Traditions hosted on The Organized Woman Show. My sister, Cindi Barton, was my invited guest. She has done such a great job of bringing her family together each time she sees an open opportunity. She shared three fun ideas for building family closeness with winter time family traditions. My show partner, Laura, and I each shared three ideas of our own for beginning new family traditions. Listen to the show by clicking on the bolded link a few lines up. Learn about Cindi’s family’s “Story around the Tree”, Laura’s family’s “Christmas Eve House” and my family’s “Camera, Lights, Cocoa” family traditions.

My friend, Kim Shields, who is SO GREAT at finding time not only for her own children, but even includes many of the neighborhood children in her fun times, emailed me a these great ideas:

• Make sugar cookies together, decorate them and deliver them to neighbors. Enjoy the tasting as you do the baking. Happy tummies make happy workers.
• Pull out the Christmas books, put them in a basket and read the stories together while snacking on pop corn and yummy hot coco each night around the tree.
• Reminisce together over the gifts you have received or have given to someone you value.
• Read the Christmas story from the Bible on Christmas eve. Dress the young children up in simple costumes to act out the nativity story.
• Try to do something nice for someone else who is in need each Christmas.  Deliver a meal and/or toys to a family who really needs some help.
• Buy a boxed gingerbread house at target (about $12) and decorate it with your family. Be sure to buy extra candy so the kids can eat up as you design and compile the house accents.
• Set out a “Countdown to Christmas Calendar” where each day the kids find a very small treat, (think a M&M or hershey’s kiss) to consume each morning before they take off for school. (This is another Winterton family tradition also.)
• Build a “Holiday Chain” for each child’s room to count down the days before Christmas
• Have a treasure hunt for a hidden gift the day before Christmas

For additional winter season family traditions that include non Christmas tradition ideas, click here to read what is being said on the WIN’s conversation board.