By now many of you have heard the term mompreneur which applies to the large number of entrepreneurial women who are working from home running successful businesses while raising their families. This combo of the entrepreneurial spirit combined with being a busy mom working from home has sprung the new term “mompreneur” into existence.

Lisa Druxman, Founder of Stroller Strides, is one such mompreneur and is our featured guest in this Episode of The Small Business Trends Radio. Lisa started her business out of her home and, at one time, had 8 employees coming in, each with their own keys and their children in tow – until she eventually franchised the business. Lisa shares her personal story of how she created her franchise and how to find a little bit of peace - in the wonderful chaos of a busy mompreneur.

Here’s a sampling of topics from the show:

• Make sure you — do something you love. Because on the days that are tough (and there will be days that are tough), loving what you do will pull you through them.

• Three tools for mompreneurs — that Lisa recommends are 1.) a blackberry; 2.) a web based business center service such as Earnware and 3.) hire a nanny/housekeeper. Because ladies, it doesn’t matter who makes the bed or does the dishes - this will make you a much happier mom and a better businesswoman.

• Franchise startup costs — can run anywhere from $60k to $200k. The cost depends on how many states your business is in and the attorney fees involved for filing accordingly.

• Franchising laws — are changing all the time so make sure that you retain an attorney that specializes in franchising. This was a mistake that cost Lisa dearly with The Federal Trade Commission and took some real hard work to rectify.

• The International Franchise Association (IFA) — can assist you in franchising your business. However, a thick skin is required for a business at this level and being a franchiser is no small task. It requires money and time - which may not be fitting for a mom whose main goal was to spend time with family. But it CAN be done and Lisa is fortunate enough to still be working from home.

Lisa’s story is inspiring and amazing, considering her young age, and she’s helping moms everywhere stay in shape through Stroller Strides, a specialty “mom” fitness program that incorporates your children - and their strollers - into a series of exercise routines. You can hear Lisa’s story and learn more about Stroller Strides by clicking the red and yellow player below and listening to her full interview.

Brought to you by our sponsors:

JumpUp.com and Infusionsoft.com

Listen Now:

 How A Mompreneur Created A Franchise From Home [29:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

By Staci Wood | Comments (3) | Permalink

WordPress is a free publishing platform that makes it possible for you to write and publish material online. People are using WordPress to blog about all sorts of topics – to share their thoughts, express their views and opinions to the world, to perform product reviews, and more.

Once a website has been set up, it is very easy to add content and update the content on your own, almost as easily as writing a document in Microsoft Word.

Cal Evans is our featured guest in this Episode of The Small Business Trends Radio. Cal is a PHP programmer, blogger and host of The Sixty Second Tech podcast. Cal is no stranger to WordPress and in this episode he discusses all things WordPress and answers many questions you may have.

Here’s a sampling of topics from the show:

• Plugins — are small pieces of code to incorporate specific functions into your blog. Most plugins are relatively simple and easy to use. Some popular plugins are Akismet (spam blocker), Feedburner (RSS feed), Google Sitemaps (sitemap of blog), WP-DB-Backup (data backup), Simple Tags (tagging) and All In One SEO (search engine optimization). This post is incorporating a plugin by the name of Podpress (enables the audio reel underneath this post).

• Just about any web service — has the ability to interact with WordPress and many plugins are available. Flicker, YouTube, Twitter, Del.icio.us and many other services can be easily incorporated right into your blog.

• WordPress can build a site — not just a blog. WordPress then acts as a content management system (CMS) that lets you easily update your website.

• WordPress MU — is the multi-user platform used to setup and run a network of blogs. Use it if you are setting up a lot of blogs. Multiple domains can be controlled using WordPress MU, however, it may be a bit advanced for beginner bloggers.

• WordPress.com or WordPress.org? — The basic difference is hosting. Using WordPress.com the hosting is automatic and you can get it up and running easily and use plugins, themes, etc. When using WordPress.org, you download the WordPress code base itself and from there you can manipulate it to your liking, however, you will need to find your own hosting arrangements.

One of the things that makes WordPress so popular is the open source element and the community of developers that contribute to WordPress on a regular basis by building plugins. themes, etc. WordPress makes websites that are easy to update and which empower their owners.

WordPress is so versatile, that some small business owners use it to create full-blown websites, publish online magazines, and more. You can learn more about WordPress by clicking the red and yellow player below and listening to Cal’s full interview.

Brought to you by our sponsors:

JumpUp.com and Infusionsoft.com

Listen Now:

 WordPress 101: Using Plugins and Themes [29:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

By Staci Wood | Comments (6) | Permalink

Positioning yourself as the expert in your field can eliminate competition and reap endless rewards. But the task of actually becoming recognized as an expert can be somewhat daunting. Knowing what steps to take and where to focus your efforts doesn’t come easily.

Bob Sommers, host of The Recognized Expert Marketing Show, is our featured guest in this Episode of The Small Business Trends Radio. Before moving his family to Hawaii, Bob owned and operated the largest customer service training company in the country.

By positioning his company as the premier customer service training provider, he was able to generate more money in a day, than he earned in an entire year as a full time engineer.

Here’s a sampling of topics from the show:

• Do one thing only — and do it very well. Target your market down to a very small niche, become the expert at it and eliminate competition by doing so. It’s better to be a big fish in a small pond than it is to be a big fish in an endless ocean. For example, if your field is gardening, narrow it down and become the expert on azaleas.

• Take action steps — to position yourself as an expert by writing a book or creating an ebook; publishing useful articles online that contain tips and advice for readers; speaking publicly; making television and radio appearances and blogging. Writing a blog can increase your status as an expert in your field if you provide useful information, tips and actionable advice for readers. They will begin to view you as a “go to” source of information.

• If you are the expert — you will not have to say it because people will be saying it for you.

Bob has much more advice to offer from his personal experiences and explains why it is so important to choose a niche within your field to become seen as an expert. You can learn more by clicking the red and yellow player below and listening to Bob’s full interview.

Listen Now:

 How To Become A Recognized Expert [30:11m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

By Staci Wood | Comments (4) | Permalink

Intuition is a primal gut instinct, built in for survival. When your pet senses danger – it retreats and follows its gut instinct. Humans are the only living creatures that ignore those primal gut instincts. We are the only living creatures that sense danger - yet continue to move toward it.

Lynn Robinson, Author of “Trust Your Gut: How The Power of Intuition Can Grow Your Business” and Founder of LynnRobinson.com, is our featured guest in this Episode of The Small Business Trends Radio. Lynn teaches us how to recognize when intuition is attempting to communicate with us - and to learn to listen to it.

Here’s a sampling of topics from the show:

• Logic and facts — are left brain qualities and intuition is a right brain quality. Your logic speaks in one voice and your intuition speaks in another - BOTH are giving you valuable information.

• Increase your intuition by — asking yourself an open ended question and then wait for information to arrive. Practice this by writing down your question on a piece of paper and placing it in your pocket. You will find that throughout your day, images may flood your mind, hunches may reveal themselves and flashes of insight will arrive. Remember, intuition contains a “fleeting” quality - do not dismiss fleeting thoughts.

• “Freeze framing” — is a valuable tool to increase intuition. When you are feeling overwhelmed or anxious and are unable to make a decision, shift your focus from your emotions and focus on your “heart” and your breathing. This will slow down your racing mind and assist your in filtering out the information you are to receive.

German-born American physicist, Albert Einstein, once said, “The only real valuable thing is intuition.” He believed in it - and he relied on it. As does entrepreneur and co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, who was quoted as saying, “Often you have to rely on intuition.”

Intuition is a valuable tool that each of us carries. If you learn to listen to it and use it to your benefit, especially when it comes to important decisions, you can begin to become more confident in yourself, reduce self-doubt and become empowered by it.

Lynn offers additional techniques to increase your intuition and begin to tap into your “inner consultant” to make wise decisions. If you’d like to learn more about the power of intuition or learn techniques to increase it, you can do so by clicking the red and yellow player below and listening to Lynn’s full interview.

Listen Now:

 If Your Intuition Is Talking, Listen! [29:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

By Staci Wood | Comments (11) | Permalink

This week’s Podcast Review is about the Franchise Interviews Podcast.

Description: Franchise Interviews is an up close and behind the scenes look at franchising. The unique format features a variety of topics on franchising as well as personal interviews with franchisees, franchisors and franchise experts. Franchise Interviews is hosted by Marty McDermott and Don Johnson.

Comments: This is another in great Podcasts (like ours) hosted and distributed through Blogtalk Radio. All franchising all the time, the hosts cover the gambit of topics for those interested in franchising.

The content is great, at times the audio quality is sketchy but the range of topics covered is broad and comprehensive ranging from the beginner to franchising to the multi-location master franchiser. Here is a sampling of some recent shows:

- Interviews with the Juice Stop
- Interview with 1st Inpection Services Franchise
- Solving The Puzzle Of Owning A Franchise
- LA Sunset Tan Franchise Opportunity

Learn more about franchising and different franchises in 30 minutes or less with this Podcast.

Pluses: As it should be the content is king with this Podcast. The web interface makes it easy to find the show you are interested in. Good show notes, RSS subscriptions, a well done podcast.

Minuses: Sometimes the recorded phone call audio quality is a barrier to hearing clearly.

Recommendation: If you are considering franchising, shopping for a franchise or trying to operate a better franchise then Franchise Interviews is for you.

By Steve Rucinski | Comments (2) | Permalink

Small Business Trends is now on Facebook and we’d like to invite you to join our community where we encourage you to post links to news and events, upload and share your photos and videos and participate in group discussions.

It’s an open group so come join us, introduce yourself and say hello by posting on our “Wall” and use the “Post a link” feature to post a link to your site or a site you’d like to share with us.

By Staci Wood | Comments (4) | Permalink

To date, we’ve had another great year here at Small Business Trends Radio, with new and knowledgeable experts every week. As a result, the site has accumulated a wealth of strategic business advice.

From time to time we like to list our most popular small business podcasts and now we would like to share them with you. So here are our top 5 most popular small business podcasts for the year to-date.

Congratulations to the small business experts listed below — they had the most requested audio podcasts for the months of January, February and March of 2008.

The Top 5 Popular Small Business Podcasts are:

How To Use Facebook To Market Your Business
Shama Hyder, Founder of After The Launch
Facebook has some benefits for small business owners that you need to know about and Shama shares them with you.

How to Start a Profitable, Long-Lived Business
Scott Shane of Case Western Reserve University
Choosing the right industry when starting a business is crucial because some have an 840 times greater chance of success.

Are You Making These 5 Local Marketing Mistakes?
Court Cunningham, CEO of Yodle, Inc.
Are your local online marketing efforts failing? You might be making these 5 common mistakes.

How to Buy A Business At A Bargain
John L. Herman Jr., Founder of Hermanisms.com
Herman is recognized as an expert in the sale of financially troubled companies and he’s sharing his insider tips.

How Men Can Achieve A Fulfilling Work Life Balance
Matthew Scott, Founder of The Life’s Work Group, Inc.
Matthew shares valuable insights into the questions that men can ask themselves to make a successful work/life transition.

What’s great about podcasts is that they can be listened to over and over again and downloaded for iPod listening at your convenience as well. They’ve got a long shelf life and we hope you enjoy listening to them - while learning a thing or two in the process.

By Staci Wood | Comments (3) | Permalink