Lots of exciting things are happening!

Diana has a weekly segment on Jill Hart’s Internet Radio Show, Christian Work At Home Moment. The show was recently picked up by KCRO 660AM so now you can listen in every Sunday at 6:30 pm or it’s available anytime at www.cwahm.com/loudblog

Diaper Cakes are becoming more popular for baby showers and newborn gift ideas. These cakes, which offer everything a new mom needs for her new bundle of joy, can make any baby shower unforgettable. Not only do they leave a lasting impression, but the new mother can use every item in the cake, from the blankets to the diapers, thus providing a fun and useful gift for the proud mom-to-be. You can make them a three layer to just a one layer depending on the size gift you want to send.

Here are top five tips to making a diaper cake.

1. Fill your cakes with items you know the mother will be using. Diapers and blankets we all know, but items like baby lotions, powder, hand sanitizer, nail clippers, bottom balm, or Vaseline. You may also include a bottlebrush, baby bottle, scratch mittens and so on.

2. Choose quality products when you can. I use Luvs diapers as they are bigger and make your cake more stable. Blanket size does matter. Keep that in mind when deciding on the size of your cake. For example, 7, 8, 10, or 12 29×29 will give you an 8” cake and 30 x 40 will give you an 12“ cake, a burp cloth will give you an 7” (they have really cute and colorful burp clothes out now) for a 10” this size is in between so you can use a 30 x 40 and just bring in one end a little more to make it a 10”.

3. Make sure you wrap cake as this will deter others form touching or moving items around. Use cellophane wrap or cellophane bags, or tulle. Use lots of curly ribbon makes your cakes look so pretty.

4. Have fun and create your own style everyone has their own. Themed cakes are very popular (Disney). Also if the sex of baby is unknown don’t fear…mix it up a bit go with neutral colors. If you know the babies room color that is even better.

5. If your choosing this as a business-congrats. Making diaper cakes for a living is so much fun and very rewarding. A few starter tips are: Have professional pictures taken of your cakes. Use these as a portfolio and put them in a book for show and tell. Have business cards made up and brochures. Set your pricing. Tell everyone about your cakes. It is the best time start as many people in your city have more then likely not even heard of a diaper cake.

To learn more about making diaper cakes for fun or profit or to order a diaper cake go to http://www.makeadiapercake.biz.

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Barb Ireland is the founder of Make A Diapercake biz, http://www.makeadiapercake.biz. Articles are free to be reprinted as long as author’s bio remains intact.

Work at Home Success — How do you measure the success in your life? As a home-based working mom it’s so different than the outside corporate world. I know for me, one day it can be a call from Borders that they are accepting one of my books, where another day it can be that I finally got my 8-year-old to go on a field trip at school. The last two she had missed being too scared to attend and instead spent the day home, sick. Both days, I consider huge successes! Both days, I felt a real winner!

Home based success can mean the little things such as a day we get all our work done while attending a sick child, or being one of the only parents able to attend a school function that your daughter so eagerly anticipated. That’s what we are trying to achieve in our home-based business, the best of both worlds. And having worked at home since 1985 I can truly say, it can be done.

So how can you achieve this success for your business and family? How can you make more good days than bad? Here are some tips:

Start Early: I find that by getting up an hour or so before everyone else, I can accomplish so much more. That allows me the extra 10 minutes of devotional time, a few minutes to enjoy my coffee alone, and then time to dig into my work. I usually save my peak work for this time as this is truly when I’m at my best.

Regroup and Rebalance: So often home-based moms feel overwhelmed and unable to accomplish anything because of this. Try breaking it all down. Take a day or two and write down your typical day. What can you change to make it better, to make it work? Often when it’s down in writing, it’s clearer to see where changes can be made. Try to lump together tasks and delegate any tasks you can. And above all else-avoid Guilt.

Eliminate time-robbers! We still have to cook dinner, (I tried, it didn’t work!) but I don’t have to talk to my friend, who doesn’t work, for 45 minutes during my workday. Say No!

Also, with my kids I found some of the work I actually could take outside or in another room. There’s no rule that says I have to work at my desk. Perhaps you can create different workstations around the home. Be creative.

Shortcuts To Success: What can you do to make your business run smoother? Constantly be thinking of ways to improve upon your business. Organization is naturally a big one. The more organized you are, the better you’ll be at many things.

Another shortcut for me was to create different books of materials that I frequently used so I didn’t have to reinvent the wheel each time and it was right in front of me. Thus, I created different 3-ring binder books of marketing letters, press releases, etc. Anything that I frequently use and would save me time, I’ll implement. Think about things that you can do for your business. Things that you use often, that you could print out and possibly make a collection of, and then look to as a resource. Or what other times savings tip could you think of that would help your business?

Another thing I do is buy paper that has 3 ring holes already in it. When I print out a client’s e-mail, or client’s article, I’ll immediately put it into their binder categorized by topic. I’m now able to find things more and also can see clearly all I’ve done with the clients.

Focus on Success: Continue to see yourself as a success and focus on your goals. Success is within your reach when you continually focus on your goals, both for your business and your family.

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Diana Ennen is the author of numerous books including Virtual Assistant -The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA, Words From Home, Start, Run and Profit from a Home-Based Word Processing Business. She also is the publisher of the science fiction thriller, Sledgehammer, http://www.pauloreyes.com/ She specializes in publicity and book marketing and is president of Virtual Word Publishing http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com/and http://www.publicity-va.com/. Articles are free to be reprinted as long as the author’s bio remains intact.

Whether just starting a virtual assisting business or having been in business for years, it’s important to always remember that the initial impression you leave with potential clients is critical. Often it can be the determining factor in whether you get the client or not.

The key is portraying confidence, whether it’s corresponding back to an e-mail, on the phone, or in person. You need to reassure these clients that if they trust you with their work, you won’t let them down. In fact, they’ll be amazed just how good of a job you do!

With your VA business you will either be responding to a client via e-mail, phone, or in person. Here are a few tips for each:

E-mail — Keep your reply short and to the point. No client wants to read through paragraphs of text to get to the bottom line. Be friendly, yet professional. Provide all the needed information they requested and any other information you believe would be relevant. Use a signature line that provides all your contact information. Toot your horn a little. Include a paragraph that sings praises of your business and how you can help their business.

Phone - Always answer the phone in a professional, cheerful manner. Use Caller ID so that you know who’s calling before you pick up the phone. This give you advance notice of what demeanor you need. Don’t talk excessively. Keep in mind that most clients are busy and appreciate short, to-the-point conversations. Always have the information you need to relay to a client at hand. Be firm on your rates and business practices. Don’t sound hurried. If you are working on a deadline, let your answering machine get it and call them back when you are more relaxed.

In Person - Dress the part. Not only does this make you feel more confident, but it conveys to them that they are dealing with a fellow professional. Be enthusiastic about your business and let them know that you want their business. Show interest and knowledge of their business. Have the right tools with you and close at hand. You don’t want to have to look for a pen or your business cards. Have something such as a portfolio for them to keep that describes your business. This enables them to remember you after the appointment and also gives them an additional opportunity to check out the services you offer.

The ability to create a good first impression is a valuable asset for a virtual assistant and one that enables a business to grow. However, another valuable asset is being able to learn from your mistakes. After the interview if it didn’t go well analyze what you could do better the next time and then do it. Mastering these first impressions can take some time, but the reward is a thriving business that you can be proud of.

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Diana Ennen is the author of numerous books including Virtual Assistant -The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA, Words From Home, Start, Run and Profit from a Home-Based Word Processing Business (http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com) . She also is the publisher of the science fiction thriller, Sledgehammer, http://www.pauloreyes.com/.

You are now home from the hospital, and while the healing process is well underway, or you would not have been discharged, there are miles to go. There seem to be so many instructions to remember. You simply will not be up to much in the first few weeks, and in some cases, for several more. I won’t understate this. Yes, an upbeat approach by the hospital medical staff may have sent you waltzing home and it’s thrilling to be leaving the hospital, where you haven’t been permitted to sleep through the night. Yet you are returning home greatly fatigued, with a medications schedule to manage, possibly a tank of oxygen, and perhaps recurrent irregular heartbeats or other complications that remain unresolved. Now is the time to dedicate yourself to the hard work of recovery. Alternating rest and exercise, and above all patience with the physical and emotional trials ahead, is your assignment for the next several weeks.

You and your caregiver will mostly be on your own unless your particular situation requires a treatment plan that includes post-op visits from a home health care nurse. Even if that’s the case, now is the time to review any guidelines your hospital medical team has given you about what to be aware of.

If you have purchased the paperback or downloaded the e-book version of The Open Heart Companion: Preparation and Guidance for Open-Heart Surgery Recovery, from my website http://www.openheartcoach.com, it’s time to reread Chapter 5, “The Challenges You May Face.” This chapter provides detailed information not only on challenges that may arise in your recovery, but it also supplies solutions as well. For example, on the subject of feeling isolated: “This is the time to find other open-heart surgery survivors and their caregivers to talk to. Swap stories, share information, hear what other families have gone through. Just knowing that you are not alone as you go through your rehabilitation can lift the veil of isolation. There can be a tendency to hold one’s surgery and recovery experiences too privately, but not reaching out to others will only deprive you of receiving compassionate support. If you are feeling isolated, do yourself a favor: reach out to friends and family, and look for a heart surgery support group locally or online.” However, whenever in doubt about what you may be experiencing specifically, contact your designated medical liaison for professional diagnosis or medical attention. No question or concern is too trivial.

For most of us, there is a difficult recovery challenge from the time we leave the hospital until we are healed and strong enough to enroll in a local rehab program. That’s one of the reasons for my book, to bridge this gap as so little medical attention is focused on the recuperation period that lasts anywhere from four to eight weeks. We thought getting through surgery was the biggest hurdle. However, the hurdle is greater when we are home on our own with not much progress to report fast enough — and without all those experts in the hospital to lean on.

Every recovery is different. If you’ve been told to expect improvement “two days forward, one day back,” you might be disappointed to experience instead only one good day (a period of energetic spunk) followed by two, three, or even four days of just plain feeling lousy. Even to meet the assignment of increasing your walking time from five minutes to ten minutes a day may feel like an insurmountable task at first. You may also be swinging in and out of temporary depression. (In my case, I wished the discharge nursing staff had emphasized the psychological challenges of recovery, not just the physical stresses.) Or, you may feel “off,” and think you might be coming down with a virus. That might be the case, but feeling off can be due to other things as well: you may have become anemic (as I did); you may be having an allergic reaction; sleep deprivation may have caught up with you—there are many possibilities. Know that everyone goes through discouragement, yet those who are informed to expect ups and downs will fare far better.

Recovery after surgery takes time. There’s often a feeling of “being all alone.” Because I, and dozens of patients and caregivers who were interviewed for The Open Heart Companion, have gone through open-heart surgery recovery ourselves, I offer the help you need via a free monthly phone support group, a newsletter specifically on recovery, a highly informational paperback (also available as an e-book), and general practical tips. Stop by my site at http://www.openheartcoach.com to see how we can help you recover faster.

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Maggie Lichtenberg, PCC, a recent open-heart surgery thriver, is an open heart coach to heart patients and their loved ones, a professional speaker, and frequently published author. To subscribe to her free online newsletter, Heart To Heart, send a blank email message to HeartToHeart-On@zines.webvalence.com. To learn more about Maggie’s free phone support group and other programs go to http://www.openheartcoach.com.

Article is free to reprint as long as author’s bio remains intact.