Relish for Women

Are you treating yourself to a financial rut?

2008-11-16T20:10:00.000-08:00

By Melanie KFinancial resilience has been a recurring theme here lately, as well as really focusing on saving money and reducing debt. It's easy to talk about the technical stuff that helps you to do better financial management (putting together a budget, setting up an automatic savings plan, paying down debt every month). But, I think it's important to get into the details of what this means in

Six tips for making a part-time consulting business work for you

2008-11-09T11:35:00.000-08:00

by Melanie KA lot of advice that you will hear about transitioning into full-time self employment includes running your small business part-time for a while. This is particularly easy to do if you are providing a service (research, writing, consulting) that you can run out of your home on evenings and weekends. There are pros and cons to doing this, and after running part-time for two years now,

Women Preparing for Entrepreneurship [3]: Four things you can do to actually make it happen

2008-10-26T17:57:00.000-07:00

by Melanie KDeciding to launch your small enterprise full-time can be daunting. So much so, that for some women it just never happens! In her book Making a Living Without a Job, Barbara J. Winter recommends setting up a transition plan to help you stay on track. Here are four things to help you work towards becoming your own boss:Prepare mentally. This is one of the most fundamental things you

The immigrant's guide to personal finance : Four long-term strategies to improve your financial resilience

2008-10-20T21:02:00.000-07:00

by Melanie KIn light of the current downturn of the economy and looking at the security of my own financial future, I can't help but reflect on the money management philosophies of my own parents, grandparents, and in-laws, most of them immigrants, and survivors of wars, the Great Depression and the Cold War. These experiences shaped the way they managed money, and while many of them have had

Four short-term strategies for getting through the economic crisis.

2008-10-20T19:45:00.001-07:00

by Melanie KAre you worried about the economic downturn and what it means for you? Do you still have a job, but are not sure how long it will last? What is the best strategy to survive this turmoil? Here is how I've decided to deal with the economic uncertainties that experts say will take at least a year, and maybe more, to sort out:1) Don't add to the debt. Spending drives our economy, but it

Creating a lifestyle within your small business

2008-10-13T15:06:00.000-07:00

by Melanie KIn many of the books I've read about women and business, a common message has been the use of money as a tool, not a measure of success. One of the non-monetary benefits of operating your own small business is the opportunity to mould it around particular lifestyle choices. This is the Working to Live rather than Living to Work philosophy. These benefits will keep you motivated at

Customizing your business: Following a passion

2008-09-29T09:28:00.000-07:00

By Melanie KIn my previous post, I discussed some of the benefits of running your own business that were beyond making money. In this post, and in the following posts, we'll start to focus on each of those benefits in more detail.Author Barbara J. Winter tells us that business ideas come from our passions. The best small businesses reflect who you are in all respects. Sometimes your passion

Why do you want to work for yourself? Getting a handle on the big picture

2008-09-21T10:25:00.000-07:00

by Melanie KOn the surface, we all have this idea of what being an entrepreneur means. Entrepreneurs have a reputation for being savvy risk takers whose goal is to make big money. That may be the case if your objective is to eventually sell your business publicly. But, the more I read and talk to women in business, the more I realize that there are many women entrepreneurs that run small and

Four strategies to work smarter, not harder, in your home-based business

2008-09-02T09:50:00.000-07:00

By Melanie KI recently discovered a self evaluation form that allows you to determine which entrepreneurial skills or aptitudes you have or need to improve upon. The source is a guide for women considering entrepreneurship. If you are interested, you can find it here. In the self-evaluation, there is a category called “commitment to work contract”, which basically evaluates your commitment

Learning from My Mentors: Four sobering lessons

2008-07-14T18:06:00.000-07:00

By Melanie KI’ve mentioned in a previous post that it was time to add some mentors into my self-education on starting and owning a small business. While the books I’ve read are great, it’s very important to get some real-life sobering facts about self-employment. And boy did I ever get a reality check! Here are some of the things I learned about self-employment from family, former employers and

Creating a Culture (& Why That's So Important From the Start)

2008-06-12T20:26:00.000-07:00

Rene LacerteFor most people, creating a company culture is not a top priority when they start a business. Usually, it doesn't even come to mind. When I started PayCycle, I believed it was important, so I spent some time with my co-founder defining the values before we opened the doors. We had a lot to do so we probably spent less than an hour working on it. Little did I know how important those

Preparing for Entrepreneurship [2]: Doing research

2008-05-11T19:31:00.000-07:00

by Melanie KWhen I started planning to leave my job (which I still haven't done yet) and working for myself (which I'm doing part-time), I found that I needed mentoring. None of my current colleagues or friends can provide this kind of mentoring because they are not interested in self-employment. So, I decided to slowly build a new network of self-employed people to provide this mentoring - but

My New Favourite Values-driven Business

2008-04-28T20:38:00.000-07:00

By Melanie KI want to share this great example of a values-driven business that I think is really inspiring. Recently, I visited Victoria, British Columbia (Canada) for a vacation. While roaming the charming shops and boutiques around Market Square, my fiance and I stumbled upon Hemp & Company, a funky little store that sells clothing made from hemp (of course) as well as organic cotton, and

Glass Ceiling or Fire Escape: Why are women not sitting in the top career positions?

2008-04-27T15:23:00.000-07:00

by Melanie KI have noticed some considerable attention directed to the concerns around women and their path to high power jobs, and there seems to be two schools of thought on this issue. I'm calling them the glass-ceiling group and the fire escape group.The Glass-Ceiling GroupThe glass-ceiling is a metaphor for the barriers that women encounter that prevent them from reaching high-level

First Impressions on the Internet: How important is branding?

2008-04-21T19:50:00.000-07:00

By Melanie KI recently discovered a website called eMoms at Home (great for at home entrepreneurial types, moms or not) and creator Wendy Piersall’s post about re-branding her blog (which is now called Sparkplugging).With a more diverse reader demographic then she originally anticipated, Piersall is finding that in order to make her diverse visitors feel welcome, she

Preparing for Entrepreneurship [1]: 6 tips for getting out of debt

2008-04-06T11:58:00.000-07:00

By Melanie KThe economy is going in the tank—it’s everywhere in the news. Part of the issue, the experts say, is the high personal debt load that North Americans have accumulated. We’re teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and foreclosure, and more are falling over the edge everyday.I’ve read several great books on self-employment. But few of them provide specific advice on how to set yourself up

Is Entrepreneurship a Form of Individuality and Self-expression?

2008-03-30T10:11:00.000-07:00

By Melanie KUntil recently, I was never interested in business. I have even avoided working for the private sector for more than a decade. As an undergraduate student of the environment, and being “green” minded, my friends and I thought that students in commerce had different values then we did, mostly to do with wealth, simply because they chose to study business. Now, after a graduate-level

Mompreneurs are on the Move!

2008-03-22T11:53:00.000-07:00

By Christa LouwMore and more moms are starting their own businesses at home and loving it. Today's technology makes it so easy to start a business, share ideas, and market/advertise a small business than ever dreamed possible just 20 years ago. We call these innovative women "mompreneurs" because they are moms working for themselves, and doing a darn good job at it.Why are moms choosing to work

Trust in Your Individuality

2008-03-21T16:13:00.000-07:00

By Gina RatliffeI've been thinking lately about how easy it is to get bogged down by the busyness of life.As a success coach, I often hear women stressed out about who they think they are supposed to be and what they think they are supposed to be doing--in life and in business. I see women entrepreneurs regularly compare themselves to others--it's a very human characteristic and it's a hard habit

Welcome to Relish for Women

2008-03-08T21:39:00.000-08:00

By Melanie KThis blog is certainly an adventure for me. I've never had a blog before, nor have I visited too many either. Trying something new, testing new ground, and putting yourself "out there" is what this place is all about.I'm surrounded by women who seek adventure and walk through life knowing themselves and how those "selves" are expressed in how they live. Those same women also,