Finally Feeling Some Tangible (EMPLOYABLE) Results

When I started The Employable Mom, I wanted a space to organize my experiences of staying employable while on my "extended maternity leave": and so I began doing some talking (actually a lot of talking), plus some research and more research, and self-exploration and now I'm doing a lot of "doing!" To be honest it's keeping me really busy but a lot of where I am now is due to the things I was doing back then, like: goal setting, finding ways to get out of the house and be social, getting CPR and First Aid certified (which has surprisingly come in very handy,) and a ton of other things. I've loved all the self discovery but I'm even more excited to be doing something that makes me feel productive because I've finally found the mommy project I've been so desperately looking for!

Let me give you some context: a few posts back, I shared some potential BIG NEWS and now I can almost certify that it's official BIG NEWS because next week I'm going to finalize the paperwork for my purchase of a pre/post-postnatal fitness franchise! I'm really excited, I think that this will enable me to gain a lot of marketable skills in addition to trying a whole realm of new things!

Now buying a franchise isn't for everyone, and I still plan on peeking into other employable opportunities for SAHMs, because one of my goals for EM is to really flush out all of the options out there. However, EM will see a few changes, mostly in posting regularity, but possibly in content. And once I get over the newness hump of running my own business, I'll most certainly re-evaluate my plans for EM.

I guess what I'm trying to do here is give a little update on my project's progress and renew my commitment to my Employable Mom community. I don't want you to think I've forgotten about you as my posts move to being more far and few between. I'm anticipating that I will maintain this speed, but don't anticipate that I stop all-together. I've still got a journey to document; plus I've got big things planned and I'm excited to share them with you!

Sincerely,

Keep Your Head Up

I cannot get this song out of my head! So darn catchy!

So I've been kind of bumming all week. I don't know why but some days/weeks hit me really hard with urges to be working. I've been keeping really busy with other things too. Unfortunately, when I'm so busy, it takes time away from getting posts out, and then it starts to get to me. Ah, the double edged sword. (Also, my son isn't sleeping again...so that never helps.)

Just to catch you up on what I have been so busy with...

A few weeks ago I cleaned out my closet of all my old work related clothes (and other junk) and this week I finally took them to our local branch of Dress for Success. It was bittersweet. Obviously, I'm super happy to be helping other women look great at work; I donated some suits and I'm really glad that they will match them up with an owner who will love them as much as I did. But it's just kind of a reminder that I am not working, (albeit, for good reason.)

I've been working on some home projects: rearranging furniture, making a big chalk board, general organizing, and trying to find myself a little workspace in our little home. I'm also planning on staining some furniture, making some art for our super bare walls, doing some furniture repair, and picking fabrics for some reupholstering. I like doing home-y things but I'm so afraid of picking something that will turn out to be not how I pictured and becomes an expensive mistake. So, decorating the house ends up being a ridiculously long and time consuming process. I tell my husband, "I'm afraid of commitment."

We're also planning for another marathon 2 week trip to DC and having a little first birthday celebration for the baby (omg...I'm not going to be able to call him that anymore.) Of course I'm so excited, but there are lots of things to do.

I don't think I've mentioned this here before, but I volunteer as an adviser for the local chapter of my college sorority. A lot of the officers have had major questions and so I've been meeting with all 18 girls one-on-one to help sort things out before the year comes to an end. It's been interesting to learn all the intricacies of the organization, which is somewhat akin to a company. I've been giving advice on finance, marketing, HR, etc. It's been good but it's really really time consuming.

And the last thing is my BIGGEST NEWS: I've been exploring the possibility of starting a mommy business. This blog has been a great mommy project, but sometimes I feel like it's not enough. I like writing and sharing information but I don't like sitting behind a computer all day. I need to be around people. And actually, an opportunity has kind of presented itself. I'm still trying to figure out the details of everything. Sometimes, it sounds like a really great idea, and then other times I feel like I'm in over my head and that it wont work out. I'm not ready to share everything quite yet, but as I learn more about it I will def pass along the messy details.

It's funny because these things that have been keeping my busy are great things, but somehow I'm still bogged down. I'm sure his sleep issues have A LOT to do with it, combined with still working on a routine for organizing my time. Hopefully, this Andy Grammer song that I've got perpetually playing in my head for like the past three days will give me a boost.

Sincerely,

P.S. - How do you work through the exhausting, busy, unorganized days? I love tips.

Colourlovers: Design for the SAHM

In the "learn a new blog skill section" of this post I shared my discovery of a few color palette sites and apps I found while designing my blog. Well, when I was working on this weeks arty Feed Read post, I found another AWESOME palette site and it's so good and so full of employability potential that I couldn't just write one sentence about it, so I just had to write a whole post.

I found the site while playing around with twitter. While I was uploading my background to my page, I happen to click on the "Check out Themeleon" link which I though was cool because it lets you create an awesome twitter background and design a color palette, etc.

So I started exploring the site hosting this service, Colourlovers, and I have just about fallen in love with it.

(The first time, I skipped the tour, but in retrospect - do it; I learned more.)

I started with the pattern template generator, which basically enables you to make a template for a pattern, (it's best viewed in it's entirety, here.)

Then I was able to add color that resulted in this whole pattern.

And then you have so many options for your pattern:

1. Background

You can download the image for your desktop, for your iphone, or for your blog background!

2. Fabric

You can turn it into a fabric, that you can sell here. (Mine isn't for sale...yet!)

3. Art

You can turn it into framed, canvas or print art, that you can sell (however, they have put a hold on new artist sign-ups, so I'll keep you updated when I get in.)


So it was at this point that I went back and tried the tour, where I customized my Employable Mom color palette from the colors I use for my site.

I took these colors right from my site by typing my HEX#s right into Colourlovers. The COOLEST PART, was when I typed in my blue color they said that it was a "new color" to the site and they let me NAME IT (which I named after my son.) Check out Baby Blue! Also, and this is also kind of cool - it correlates to a Martha Stewart paint color that you can buy from Home Depot (however, it renders the "closest match" which for this one isn't really close at all...)

I basically spent my entire day playing with this site because it's so much fun! This would be such a fantastic site for a fashion/artistic/design mom to work on fabric design, or whatnot. If you decide to join, follow me, so I can follow back and check out all of the amazing designs your coming up with! I hope you enjoy playing with it as much as I did!


Sincerely,

P.S. - Have any cool sites that you think would enable a SAHM to get her foot in the door? (Like this one!) Share them below! (I want to try them all and report back!)

Not a Make Money From Home Scam

I searched our house high and low just to find enough to take this picture.

A few weeks ago I posted some recommended reading for career breaking, and in it was this article with suggestions about financially preparing for a career break. I thought all of the suggestions were pretty interesting but one of the ones that resonated with my SAHM-break was freelancing through an internet marketplace like Elance. (And I also re-posted the link in yesterday's feed read.

Elance is a digital freelancing site that allows you to make a profile and bid for jobs in a variety of categories like: IT, Design, Writing, Sales, Admin, Finance, the list goes on. What is really neat about it, is that all the work you do is from home and you can choose to work on projects based around your schedule (and what you agree on with your client.) This could be a perfect naptime project, mommy business, or a way to keep your skills up. And it's not one of those scammy ads: "make money from home."

I decided to try it out myself the other day.

First thing you do when you get to their site and sign-up is design a profile, this took me an entire naptime to complete (it was a shorter nap and there is a LOT to explore.) The site is packed with resources, including skills tests you can take that correlate to each industry, and after you take one it gives you a proficiency score that you can display on your profile. I thought that might be cool to take just to know where I stand. I tried one of the easier ones, I think it was called "phone skills." Somehow I got one or two wrong because I got around a 90%...oops. I also submitted two proposals and so I'm excited to hear back if I got the jobs. I just submitted for two little jobs that I thought sounded interesting and that I could get done within a nap or two.

I was actually pretty impressed by how easy it was and how little time it took to submit a proposal. Essentially, this site is a legit way to make some cash on the side, get some experience for your resume, and network.  Perfect for the SAHM.

Sincerely,
Jordan

P.S. - I didn't get paid for this or anything, this is just me trying out something and offering advice! Let me know what you think!

I Need an E-book to Publish

On Thursday night I attended a class at our local library about e-publishing. Now, I'm not a writer by any stretch of the imagination nor do I have plans to write a book, I actually went hoping to get inspiration on making some sort of e-portfolio, which is apparently a very different type of thing. Almost all the people at this class had completed manuscripts that they wanted to turn into ebooks, (very cool for them.) I stayed at the class because it seemed like it would be an interesting skill to have: the know-how to format, publish, and market an ebook. I learned so many random things about the publishing world that I never knew before, which I'm now going to share with you.

So the class was hosted by two authors who have published in both the traditional method and the self-publishing method, so they gave a pretty interesting comparison of the methods.

In the traditional method, you basically hand over your final manuscript to a big publishing house and they edit, format, publish, market, etc, your book and then you get back 10% of the price of the book. I'm an ex-accountant so your getting the numbers. For example, if the Hunger Games (because that's what I'm about to be reading - Mockingjay) cost $20 then Suzanne Collins would get $2 a book. In Feb 2010, she sold 800,000 books which makes her cash-money equal to $1,600,000 (that's over the course of the books life.)

In the e-book method, she gets 70% of the sale price, which is about $8.00. She has sold over 1 million ebooks, but lets say she only sold 800,000 for comparisons sake, she would get $5.60 per book and for 800,000 she would get $4,480,000. Wow - that's like a difference of more than 2 mil...omg.

Obviously she is a huge outlier because the Hunger Games was RIDICULOUSLY successful, but the authors recommend that if you are just in it for the $$$ then you should write in one of the two most popular genres: romance or thriller; the biggest cash cow is the genre "paranormal romance;" (this category made me giggle,) which is books like Twilight.  

E-publishing has become a real challenger against the traditional method because of it's incredible popularity amongst authors and the average-Joe. E-books are a win-win for authors and readers: lower price point for readers, more direct profit for authors, and low start-up costs for newbie writers. There is also a whole little home-grown industry coming up around the self-publishing of e-books. People are choosing to work out of their homes: editing, formatting, cover art designing, and marketing e-books, (which would be a FANTASTIC mommy business for a SAHM! Another great SAHM job would be actually writing your own book!)

The authors provided us with a bunch of resources like this formatting guide and this company that will format and make cover art for you (at a reasonable price) if you choose not to do it yourself. They also talked briefly about self-publishing hard books through this Amazon program. I took notes at the presentation so if you are interested in all of the nitty-gritty details feel free to contact me and I will pass along what I know.

Sincerely,
Jordan

Finding My Passion Through a Naptime Project

A few days ago I decided I was going to make a commitment to hit the books and read as much as I can about employability, jobs, and career searching - and I have! I've been majorly requesting as many books as I can find at the library (I LOVE my local library) and I've been reading articles and checking out other blogs. I try to squeeze as much researching as I can into nap times. (I LOVE nap times.) There is so much stuff out there and I have only touched the surface. I've started to pin things that I'd like to read or have already read onto my pinterest.

I can't tell you how much I am enjoying just reading and taking notes on things I want to share. Starting this blog has been a great project for me and I have been much in need of a project! I feel that every new stay-at-home mom really needs some sort of mommy project. I know a lot of SAHMs that take up photography (why not when you have such cute subjects) or cooking or blogging or start a mommy business. Regardless of what you decided to do, having some sort of goal-oriented project is great for taking your mind off all the drool and poop.

One of the reasons I started this blog was because I was having trouble finding a naptime project. I have no hobbies; my career was my hobby. It sounds sad but I truly enjoy the organization of going into work for a set amount of time and focusing all of my thoughts onto one/many tasks that support an end goal. Right after I had my son, I channeled all of this "work" energy into taking care of my son, which sounds good but it really wasn't. I read every parenting book I could find, I started writing down every little think my son did, I gave ridiculously detailed instructions for the smallest of tasks, even for my husband, and even if I was only just going to take a shower. I tried to organize my infant, which obviously went over spectacularly. To some degree I'm sure this is a very normal reaction for a new mom, but one day, I finally realized that I can take care of my son without making it my life's work.

I love the idea of working for myself and so I really wanted to start a mommy business. I read a bunch of things about starting a business and everything seemed pretty fun and manageable but I kept stumbling over the "idea" or the "product" or the "service" that I needed to center my business around. In thinking about this whole hobby/business thing I kind of realized that I am not even sure what I want to be passionate about!

About a month ago someone suggest that I read "What Color is Your Parachute" by Richard Bolles. I read it in 2007 when I was going through a job search and found it be really helpful; it was so helpful that I read the first two chapters and found a job right away. (These events were not mutually exclusive either; one of the methods he advocates for is asking family and friends, which is how I ended up finding that job.)

So finally last week, right before I stumbled upon starting this blog, I took it out and starting flipping past the two chapters I had already read and I found a whole section on "resuming the search to find your dream." So I've decided that this is going to be my first recommended reading book. When I go back to the job market I don't want to return to just any old 9-5, I want to truly LOVE what I am doing because otherwise it's just not worth it.

Sincerely,
Jordan