Running a home based business is tough. Running a home based business with kids under your feet: nearly impossible.

Until you get them involved.

If your kids are like mine, they love to be where mommy is doing whatever it is that mommy does. This constant distraction and frustration has, unfortunately, stopped many of my ventures dead in its tracks. Not any more!

There are two great traits about children:

One, they LOVE to feel included; and two, if you include them they will get bored and go play.

Here’s a few tips and tricks on how to give your kids and your customers a real treat:

Customers love little surprises. I can remember getting a post it note in with one of my auction purchases. Very simply she had stamped “Thanks”. It really meant a lot. Grab your kids, give them a $1 rubber stamp and a stamp pad and let them go to town. They can stamp post it notes, note cards, post cards and more! Just tossing one in with each shipment can do wonders for customer satisfaction.

Peeling and sticking address labels is a pain. I used to do home parties and it seemed every few months I had a huge new stack of catalogs and fliers to stick my address labels on. Why not let the kids help? My five year old, with some simple guidance, was able to help me stick my labels on with great efficiency. Sometimes she would peel the label, sometimes she would stick the label. She loved every minute of it! (This also works for those of you with self inking address stamps)

Modeling…. bows, clothes, toys, even housewares! How cute would it be to show off the new apron and kitchen towel set you made then to have it modeled on your “little mommy”!

Let them sell stuff too! Let them pick a toy or book or outfit to sell themselves. They can model it, and you can help them keep an eye on the auction. When it sells, let them have the moola to spend on something new! Really show them what Mommy is doing while she works!

If you ever want to give out goodies for a holiday (like a couple of chocolate kisses for Valentine’s Day) let the kids help fix up the baggies. Customers always love a surprise goodie!

Imagine you’ve won a cutie patootie little dress from your favorite Mommy Auctions seller and when it arrives on your doorstep you find an adorable postcard with the scribbles “Thanks for buying from my Mom”….

now doesn’t that just make you all warm and fuzzy!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 at 6:26 pm and is filed under Random, Good to Know, A day in the life of being a Mommy!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.