My first client!!

Yoo hooo! I got my first client last week. I ran a couple of errands for a co-worker of mine and it turned out great. She was able to get some things off her to do list and Gift of Time was more than happy to help her out. I just hope that more people see the value in not having to spend an entire day doing errands. Think of how much time you could have if you didn't have to run to the grocery store or dry cleaner or whatever other annoying thing is sitting on your to do list.

I have consistently been getting hits on the website so that is pretty good considering that all of my marketing up to this point has been grass roots, mostly just handed out my business card and letting people know what I am doing. I am still working with the printer to do the brochures, I never would have imagined what goes into printing one little brochure. Still waiting to get one more edit on a word that was missing and then we will be good to go. So my next marketing effort is going to be to hand out brochures in several more affluent neighborhoods in the area plus leave them in all the local real estate offices. Hopefully this will generate at least 2-3 new clients, I will keep you posted on the progress.

Oh, in addition to the above I've been very actively posting on several local message boards and networking that way as well. I'm pretty confident that I should be able to get at least 1 new client with my free forms of marketing. So much of a business like this depends on future referrals so just 1 new client could generate several new people in the future. I am hopefully going to add a testimonials page on the site as well.

So far having my own business is great but it really consumes almost all of my mind right now. I'm constantly trying to think of new ways to get the word out and how I can update the website and give myself more visibility. I guess it's always like that when you own your business.

Open for Business!

Ok so Gift of Time is officially open for business! My website is online and active at www.agiftoftimeonline.com.

I am mostly doing word of mouth advertising for now. I have a bunch of flyers printed out which I am planning on putting all around town and I am working on getting a brochure printed out as we speak.

I have sent out an email to people I know and have called some local papers to find out about ad rates. whew! lots to do and lots to think about. I am quickly figuring out that the marketing of the business is defenitly the most time consuming and most overwhelming for a newbie business owner. So far this adventure has been a great learning experience for me because I am getting to do alot of things that I don't normally do in my everyday life and I love that.

On another note there is a book that I am really anxious to read, I read about it on this website that I am now addicted to, StartupNation.com. The book is called "One person/Multiple careers" by Marci Alboher and it is about creating what she calls a "slash life", where you have multiple careers going on at once. I always saw myself as someone who would do multiple things throughout life and that has been clearly evidenced by my various career choices over the years and now there is actually a name for it and other people who do it too. It really gives people validity that they too can start another career while pursuing one.

So I am now officially living my "slash life" as a mom/realtor/entrepenuer. I have to clearly give credit to my husband whom without I would not be able to even dream of having a slash life. Thank you, honey.

I'm a Blogger!!

I can't beleive I am actually starting my own blog, my husband will probably have a heart attack. I am finally in the 21st century!



Having never been a journal writer, the idea of keeping thoughts and ideas in a public place seemed kind of weird to me but I am stepping out of my comfort zone and seeing how it works out.



I am in the process of getting things together to start my own business, Gift of Time: A Personal Shopping and Errand Services business so I decided to share the adventures of starting this business with the people of the internet. Hopefully the business will become a success and this won't be my only post.

I wanted to share the ups and downs of starting your own business since I felt like there are probably alot of other people like me who for most of their lives wanted to work for themselves but haven't taken the plunge.

So far things have been very busy just putting things the initial things together like deciding on a name, which was no easy feat, ordering some collatoral and of course getting the website together.

On top of the craziness of trying to start my own business, I am also a mom of a 2 year old and work part-time so things should be interesting.


Soon I will hopefully need my own services to help give me more time in my day.