Are you’re trying to operate your home business this weekend while the children are home from school?  Do you become dismayed by the many interruptions?  (In the United States, most schools are closed so students have a 4 1/2 day holiday weekend.)

Laura Spencer at Work from Home Momma has just the solution!  Check out her post, Twenty-five Thanksgiving Activities and Puzzles for Kids. 

Ah!  Now to get some work done on the Internet, finish making items for an order, or wait on customers in your shop while the youngsters are occupied with Laura’s suggestions and checking out activities in books you may have on hand. 

For those who celebrate in the United States….Happy Thanksgiving Day and may you have many blessings to count.

For those who don’t have this holiday, may you have a very happy day, too.

The majority of businesses are closed here including home business owners. We usually spend the day with family, getting together with members they may not have seen for awhile. Often friends join us, too.

We have snow on the ground at our home in New Hampshire, the first of the season. So…snow and Thanksgiving herald the beginning of our winter season.

Everyone from rockstars to politicians are using You Tube or other similar free video storage and distribution services for promotion.

There is potential here for promoting your home business as well.

Given that you know how to operate the basic equipment, here are a few tips on getting your message across.

1. Introduce yourself and name your business
2. Speak clearly and not too quickly
3. Make it interesting to the viewer
4. Choose a suitable background
5. Know your topic and rehearse the steps
6. Have pre prepared items close at hand
7. Use closeups as well as zooming out and text as needed
8. Keep facing the audience at all times
9. Make sure others not involved are out of shot and sound range
10. Offer value to the viewer & refrain from sales pitches
11. If doing a series, don’t assume prior knowledge of other episodes
12. Recap main steps or key points at the end
13. Include your web address or contact details

HomeBizNotes.com

We’re having lots of fun with our Home Biz Myth Busted series.

Our Home Biz Myth submission from Heather Douglas touched on the perception others have about the expertise of home business owners.

Clarivoyants came to mind for some of Heather’s corporate audience participants, when asked about who they associate with working from home.

Just for fun
Hey, I think there could be something in this. Apart from our expertise, wouldn’t it be nice to actually have clairvoyant skills in home business?

How Could YOU Put Clairvoyant Skills To Good Use In Your Home Business?
If you had clairvoyant skills, how would you use them? Would you use your newly found skills to deal with the day to day or the long term future? Tell us about times you could have done with some clairvoyant skills in the past.

We have been following the hypothetical business of Kay at Cooking For Kids Creations.

Kay had a scare with the Chinese made buttons she used on the children’s chef clothes she made. The buttons came from the same Chinese factory that made toys with lead in them. Luckily her buttons were tested and turned out to be lead free.

She turned a negative into a positive. She was proactive and organized a “Get Lead Out of Toys Day” and wrote a great press release and got some very positive publicity. Now she’s preparing for a newspaper interview.

Celine at Pimp Your Work has done an excellent roundup of interview tips when you are your company’s mouthpiece.

There’s some great information here for business owners being interviewed by the media. The tips came from a number of bloggers at b5’s Business Channel. Here is a glimpse at the main points covered.

1. Learn More About the Reporter & The Newspaper
2. Be Prepared
3. Be Ready With Your Own Visuals
4. Stay Focused On Your Objective
5. Take a breath and think before you speak

Read the full article at Pimp Your Work.

This is a pretty nifty printer which could be a great help in your home business… especially if you can get it for free.

Just blog about your best holiday shopping story. Check out the details. Good luck!

Kevin, at Buzz Networker, hosted the Business Channel’s November Theme Day, based on the topic, Traditions.  Various Business Channel bloggers participated, giving their take on this theme.  Check out what they have to share.

The Home Biz Notes post, Reflections on Traditions & Your Home Business, gives you ideas for participating in holiday traditions in your community and establishing new ones  in your business. 

Do you have any traditions during the holiday season that you carry out at your business?  Or do you tend to move away from the usual ones and develop something new?

          This time of year seems ideal for reflecting on traditions and how they might influence our home businesses. 

*Are there traditional holiday events in your community you can participate in? What you do will depend on the event and your type of business.  Be creative as you look at what’s going on in your area.  Even if you have strictly an online business, you still can become involved in community events and thus make others aware of you.

*Organize a tree decorating event at your business. Perhaps you could get other businesses to participate around the community.

*Does your community hold a holiday open house, with each business offering a small hand-out to visitors and featuring special sales?  If there is no such event, organize one involving your business.

*Community parades are traditional events in some towns.  Ours holds a parade along its short main street the first Friday evening of December with businesses, organizations and schools marching or decorating floats.  Then Santa Claus makes an appearance.  The businesses stay open that evening for open house (and additional business!)

*Holiday decorating of your walk-in shop and/or web site adds a traditional aura to the scene.

*Research the holiday custom/traditions of other cultures in your town and tie in with them in your promotions.  Have a sharing Saturday afternoon or an evening at your business. 

*Discover unique traditions and incorporate them into your business.  Or bring back some of the old-fashioned holiday traditons.

*Involve your family in helping establish traditions in your home and business.  These also may evolve into enjoyable memories over the years.

              Have fun!  Enjoy the holidays and their unique traditions.

HomeBizNotes.com

Home Biz Myth:
Home Business Owners Don’t Have Expert Knowledge

Heather Douglas runs a home business helping other home business owners.

She operates the New Zealand based HomeBizBuzz.co.nz site with information, a membership network site, a Home Biz Buzz blog, and a free e-newsletter.

Heather says,

Working with home businesses it is amazing to see the variety and depth the sector has to offer. My favourite myth is one I heard when addressing a corporate audience one day.

Clairvoyants & Other Home Business Owners
When asked what kinds of home businesses were out there, the reply I got was “clairvoyants and massage therapists”.

We know that a large proportion of home business people here are professionals, or people with expert knowledge in a niche market.

Others are running multi-million dollar businesses, and yes, there are part-time businesses run on the side, and even clairvoyants and massage therapists, but that’s no reason for them to be any less credible (or incredible!)

HOME BIZ MYTH BUSTED!!

Thanks Heather. This is a really important myth to highlight, as it’s easy to lose confidence in the face of resistance.

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What is your favorite home biz myth?

To submit your own favorite “myth busted” experience or tip, email me at yvonne.russell [at] b5 media [dot] com. Be sure to put Home Biz Myth Busted in the subject line so I don’t delete it as spam.

Include your name, the name and URL of your home business or business related site, so I can link to you. You don’t need a website or blog to submit your myth. Any business that involves working or managing the business at least part of the time from home qualifies as a home business.

The end of 2007 is approaching faster than most of us would like to think about…and that means we must consider wrapping things up taxwise.

Kelly, at Taxgirl, will be answering year end tax questions about charitable donations, individual tax planning or reporting.  For submitting your question, Ask the Taxgirl.