Sep
19
Have You Thought Of A Business Decorating Cakes?
I confess. I watch too much TV. We do have a rule that the TV does not go on before 7 pm, and although we do watch a 30 min blip during the day occasionally to catch a recipe or an exercise show, but it’s a habit we rarely break. Of course, when I say “too much”- you’re talking to someone that didn’t watch ANY TV for many, many years.
What I love to watch is HGTV (some are not-so-good..), The History Channel, Discovery Channel, and yes, the Food Channel. Good Eats is a show I recently discovered that could be very educational as it describes the science of food, and why different foods react the way they do. Since I really do love anything to do with entrepreneurship, I really love bios of great entrepreneurs, and how others started their empires. I watched “The Age of Walmart” twice, the one on McDonalds, and many other shows documenting entrepreneurial pursuits. Yes, I’m one of those kind of TV watchers… to the dismay of my family!
I bring this up because I believe there is so much to be learned from some of these shows. If you’ve ever thought of entering the business of decorating cakes, then you must watch TLC’s “The Cake Boss”. It’s a New Jersey true family business, and while their behavior isn’t always exemplary, I believe it gives an accurate portrayal of the pros AND cons of the business of decorating cakes.
If you don’t have cable TV but do have high speed internet, then you can watch episodes online and view all the tools and perks they have on their website at http://tlc.discovery.com/tv/cake-boss/cake-boss.html. They even show the owner’s “sketch book” and how he plans his cakes.
So, what if you have young budding chefs in your family that have no idea how to decorate cakes, but would love to learn? Teaching Good Things Kathy Brodock has created a DVD that is an excellent introduction to how to decorate a cake and make it look professional. I’ve never gotten very fancy, but I’ve baked almost all our birthday cakes for the last 32 years, and I saw lots of new things I want to try!
If I had known it was as easy as Kathy teaches, I would’ve saved hundreds of dollars in the few professional cakes we have purchased over the years. It’s a small investment in time and materials that could pay off as a very profitable hobby for any of your children (or yourself). My daughter would’ve loved this when she was younger, and now as a grandma, I’m seriously considering buying the equipment to help my 3 young granddaughters learn the trade.
We got together last Christmas with my 3 granddaughters and made (sort of) 3 Wilton’s Gingerbread Houses and really struggled with the icing part. Watching this DVD really taught me enough that if we tackle a project like this again, it will be much, much easier! It really does pay to learn from other’s experience. I highly recommend this DVD to get started. (no, I’m not getting paid to do a review!)
The internet is full of creative ideas for decorating cakes, cupcakes, cookies, gingerbread houses and more. Once you have the basics in place, you could use your skills to create beautiful, edible gifts, too. 
However, the biggest advantage to learning this as a family is you will be creating memories that last forever.
Do YOU decorate cakes or cookies for fun or profit? Send us your pictures and we’ll post them!
Sep
18
The Winners of The Summer Blogging Contest
I’m getting more emails every day asking about the winners of our Summer Blogging Contest, and wanted to officially explain why I didn’t post them sooner. I wanted my newsletter subscribers to get the ‘scoop’ first…afterall, there has to be some advantage to being a loyal subscriber! The other reason was, well… uh, umm…it’s been CRAZY around here! Now you know.
Here are the winners:
The Youth Category – Sweet Tea {Jesus} And Me. She won a custom hula hoop from Hoops For Healing!
The Homeschool Blog Category – Katie’s Homeschool Cottage. She won $35 worth of books from Benjamin’s Book Shoppe!
The MOM Blog Category - For Such a Time As This. She won the much coveted $40 Gift Certificate from Mere Minerals!
The MOMPRENEUR Blog Category – Homeschooling WAHM. She won the ebook from Generational Cedar, How to Make and Sell Your Own Skin Care Products!
The New (Baby) Blog Category – Gardening For My Family. She won Darren Rowse’s (ProBlogger) new book, 31 Days to a Better Blog!
Already announced, but wanted to have it all in one post….
The winner of the Reader’s Choice Award was Katie’s Homeschool Cottage.
The winner of the draw from everyone who commented/voted for their favorite was Crystal Gilliam.
Congratulations to all! Everyone will be receiving a badge to display their award on their blog soon.
A sincere thank you to our sponsors, and every one who took the time to enter their blogs. Anyone have any ideas for variations of the contest for next year?
Sep
17
What a PayPal Donate Button Can Do For You
What can a Paypal “Donate” button do for you? It could cost you lots of money and lots of trouble! According to Rosiland Gardner (someone I consider a reliable source), if you are using a “Donate” button, yet not a recognized charity, you may want to re-think your strategy. I’ve seen these buttons on quite a few blogs, and have even donated on them. What I found out on her blog, Net Profits Today, was that PayPal has been known to freeze accounts with buttons like these and when that happens, you lose all the revenue in that account, too.
So, is it wrong to ask for donations? Yes, unless you are a recognized charity.
Is it wrong to ask for money? No! You just can’t use the word “DONATE”.
Some suitable replacements could be a Tip Jar, or a ‘Buy me a cup of coffee’ button. Homeschoolers could create a button or image asking for contributions to their book fund or field trip account . . . or simply: ‘Help support this blog!” The more I think about it, the more I think it could be a good idea for more bloggers to do this – for themselves, but also for others.
It’s always nice to show gratitude, and God tells us in many different ways how important this is. Have you ever noticed how good you feel when you do a random act of kindness? Much like the early church knew the law told them to wash their hands before eating and to separate those with disease from the rest of the camp, God knew how much it benefits us to be grateful and kind. A 2005 study from Hebrew University in Israel found a link between kindness and a gene that releases dopamine, a feel-good neurotransmitter in the brain. It’s that warm fuzzy feeling inside when you do something nice for someone. It’s no longer a theory… it’s a fact.
Think about it, how much can one dollar buy these days? Materially, not much. But when you give a dollar to someone because you’ve gotten something out of their blog, it’s not only a really nice thing to do, it can really make someone’s day. And you’ll feel really great for doing it. All for only a $1. (or more)
So, how do you put a Paypal button on your blog?
If you don’t have a Paypal account, then it’s time you did, so sign up at https://www.paypal.com.
Create a “Donate” button, but when you get to “Customize button” click on the radio button ‘use your own button image’. A video showing you exactly how to do this can be found at:
http://www.blogadr.com/tutorials/free-paypal-tutorial/paypal_donation.html
I haven’t actually tried this, but you could probably use the code they offer for email and attach it to any image.
Or. . . Use A WP Plugin:
Another way that I understand is much easier is explained by Wendy Merritt on The Moxie Mom Blog. She explains exactly how to install what is called the “Buy Me a Beer (or coffee..)” plug in. She has a working example on her blog you can see.
So, now that you know how to make others feel good about themselves, are you going to put one on your blog? Or do you think that’s tacky?
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” ~Matthew 6:19-21
Sep
16
Entrepreneur’s Toolbox – Free Online Spanish Resources
Depending on what part of the country you live in, you will find knowing Spanish tremendously helpful – especially in business. My oldest son has become fairly fluent simply by managing several employees that speak ZERO English. At first it was pretty frustrating for him, and he’s said that he wished he had paid more attention to the 2 years we did during his junior high years.
Preparing your children for the business world involves learning many more skills than is on a typical scope and sequence, although languages are usually required for entrance into most colleges. I had a few good reasons to explain why we were learning Spanish in those days, if only I had thought to tell them that they would need it to communicate in their jobs. Duh. Spanish is almost a required second language in the southern half of the US. Granted, if you live in the northern edge of the US near Canada, French might be more useful.
So, I thought you might like a list of some free online Spanish resources for your homeschool. Some of these are more thorough than others, and I tried to avoid the ones that offer a few trial lessons only to entice you to buy their course. You’ll also find a wealth of FREE resources in other subjects if you return to ‘HOME’ and see their list of offerings.
The University of California Agriculture Labor Mgmt- Their philosophy is to learn by listening first to natives speaking the language. Audio files are free for the download.
123 Teach Me.com – offers beginning, intermediate and advanced Spanish lessons along with conversational Spanish, too.
Online Free Spanish.com – A great site for parents to learn with their kids (actually, I think this is the site my son went to when he needed to expand his vocabulary!) Fun, easy.
Home Education Resources.com - An amazing resource you will find more than just Spanish on! Lots of full color printables for younger children, too.
Ed Helper.com – has several different easy to learn approaches, fun printable worksheets, audios and more.
Multilingual Books.com/freelessons-spanish – This site sells the resource books, but this link will lead you to a list of a variety of online Spanish podcasts and online lessons done by people that just want to share what they know.
I Love Languages.com/IDP/IDPsearch – A handy translation tool you can use for Spanish as well as several other languages. You’ll want to book mark this!
If you are looking for a program to purchase, I’ve heard that the Rosetta Stone is the cadillac of computer programs. Anyone else have experience with a Spanish program they really liked? Or didn’t like?
More From HomeschoolEntrepreneur
Sep
15
The Reader’s Choice Award, 2009
Well, it was close, but the Reader’s Choice Award goes to …
A Day In The Life was only one vote behind her, and HomeschoolWAHM, Homeschool Hangout Zone and Gardening For My Family were next in line.
While all the blogs were great, rounding up comments was what was needed to win this round. For those of you that are new to blogging, you are not alone in wondering how to get your readers to comment. Hopefully, we can cover that in the next few weeks and there’s a few of you out there that I would love to talk to about how you get so many comments!
If you have ideas or things you have done in your blogs that have helped you receive more comments on your blog, please share them with us! Leave a comment here and I’ll return the favor. (be sure you leave your blog address in your comment)
Benjamin drew the name out of his favorite hat….
AND! The winner of the drawing from all the comments voting for our Reader’s Choice was won by: Chrystal Gilliam. (please email us, I don’t have a link for you)
Congratulations to everyone that entered. I’ve learned so much from running this contest and look forward to trying this again next summer!
(Remember to leave a comment telling me what you do to get comments on your blog – and I’ll stop by your blog to comment!)
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