My Precious KidŽ - Precious Kids Newsletter
March 2003

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Subjects: Homeschool / Adoption / Parenting / Work at Home
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Author: Kay Green
http://www.MyPreciousKid.com
Family Safety ID Products
http://www.123HomeBusinessGuide.com
FREE Home Business Resources
http://www.KayGreen.com
Kay's personal pages
http://www.PreciousKids.org
FREE Adoption & Homeschool Resources

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Is Your Child Protected In An Emergency?
by Kay Green

Your child is at the community center and you are supposed to pick him up on
your way home from work. You witness a terrible car accident and are in
shock. There are ambulances everywhere and the police need you to stay and
give a statement. By the time you realize how late it is, your child should
have been picked up over an hour ago! You race home to find a message from
your sister that says the community center called her to pick up your son
(from the information on his back pack ID Card), he's happily playing with
his cousins and when will you be over? Does your child's backpack have a
safety ID tag?

What happens if you are in a car accident and are temporarily unconscious
and cannot speak for your child? Your child is unharmed. The paramedics put
your child in his car seat in a separate ambulance from you. The medical
professionals at the hospital know to call your husband or mom for your
child (from the ID card on his car seat). The car seat card tells the doctor
of your child’s allergy to certain medicines. A laminated safety photo ID
should be on every child's car seat.

What happens if your child is missing at the zoo? Does his backpack have an
ID tag with your cell number so the grandma who finds him can call you? Do
you have a current ID for your child with photo, description, and thumbprint
to give to authorities that are helping you look? Is your child protected?
If your child were to become missing do you have photo, description,
fingerprints, and DNA sample. We collect these things as insurance, praying
we never need them. As parents it is important that we do everything we can
to protect our children. Safety ID's on car seats, back packs, and in your
wallet are one way we can help to keep our kids safe. Our pediatrician says,
"I wish every child in every car seat had one of these."
My Precious KidŽ products will keep your children safer.
http://www.MyPreciousKid.com  Copy Right 2003 Kay Green
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Work At Home-Are your children protected? My Precious KidŽs Safety ID
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Join team and make a difference in the life of a child? Buy wholesale! Up to
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More Articles on parenting and business
by Kay Green
http://www.mypreciouskid.com/articles/index.html
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WAHM What is it?
By Kay Green

I am a WAHM (work at home mom). I am not sure when that really happened. I
was a SAHM (stay at home mom) for years. I am blessed to have 4 awesome
children from 19 months to 19 years old. I homeschool the middle two.
It started when I took a class and made a soft sculpture doll for my
daughter and my hair dresser wanted one for her niece. That began the
process of making and selling 50 dolls and their clothes in the era when
Cabbage Patch dolls could not be found in the stores. Through the years I
have done a variety of other things at home: bookkeeping, child care, making
Christmas Wreaths and 5 years as a freelance florist doing weddings and
craft shows from my home.

In 1994 I started homeschooling my children. Every year more families came
to me asking me to tell them how to get started and how to find curriculum.
I started a notebook that turned into a resource manual. Someone I met
online offered to help me make a web page for my book. That began by journey
into learning html and web design.

In 2000 we adopted out 4th child. I started an online registry to help
others who wanted to adopt, I also began making web pages for these same
families. The adoption registry continues to be active. About that time I
moved both the homeschool and adoption resources to
http://www.preciouskids.org This site is very active with lots of weekly
hits. I added a free e-course on How To Adopt earlier this year.

In 2001 I began producing ID cards for kids. I had worked on designing a
homeschool ID cards years before but could not get the software to do the
template correctly. My son started doing graphic designs and showed me how
to solve this. I love color and design so he and I created many colorful
options for the cards. I opened http://www.MyPreciousKid.com

I wanted medical information on my daughters car seat in case of an
accident so created a card that VelcroŽ’s onto her car seat and can be easily
changed or updated. I wanted the information on her back pack diaper back so
made one that attaches to it. She has food allergies so wanted her play
group leader to have a wallet ID cards with that information and mine and my
husbands cell phone numbers.

I am providing a fundraising option for day care centers, preschools and
other children’s organizations. Their families get the ID for their kids and
the organization makes a commission. I just started providing the ID cards
as a gift certificate wholesale to baby gift basket companies. In fact we
are being featured in Gift Basket Entrepreneur Magazine.

Being a work at home mom has challenges and blessings. The biggest challenge
is not having uninterrupted time to work and complete tasks. The biggest
blessing is I can stop in the middle of the day and read a book or snuggle
with my daughter.
In the process of working at home I have learned how to make web pages, read
html, write articles, do press releases, market my product, and finding the
right niche for my product. I have also made numerous friends online with
other WAHM’s. Now that my kids are growing up and leaving I look back with
no regrets that I chose to be home with them each and every day!
Copy Rite 2003 Kay Green http://www.MyPreciousKid.com
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Where is Success?
by Kay Green

Are you looking for the perfect business? Are you searching to find business
success around the corner? It seems that many home business owners are
constantly looking for the next business train to jump on. Is there a
perfect business, or a perfect company? Is there a company that will be
bring riches or success overnight?

I think instead of looking for the perfect business we need to look for the
right attitude. Business is work! All business takes time, effort, and
financial contribution. It is not so much about the business as it is about
attitude.
Take the business you are currently in and give it your best. If you do that
you can succeed. Give time and attention to that business every week. Plan
goals and do the little steps to get those goals completed. Become an expert
in your field, your business.

Find out who your customer is and search for ways to get your business in
front of them. Write your sales materials toward their needs. Remember it is
about how your product benefits them, not you. Tell them why they need your
product or service.
Check your attitude often. Is your attitude positive about your business? Do
you speak positively about your product or service? Speak as you want them
to be. Be positive about where you are headed and what you can accomplish.
Stop looking for a new path and give this path your all.

Share and Care! Share what your business is about with everyone you can.
Care about helping others succeed and success will come to you too. That is
not being pushy that is truly caring about others and doing your best.
THE SUCCESS OF YOUR BUSINESS IS NOT IN YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES
IT’S IN THE ATTITUDE IN WHICH YOU RESPOND TO YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES! So what is
your attitude.....
Copy Rite 2002 Kay Green http://www.MyPreciousKid.com
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How Do I pay Taxes on my Business?
by Kay Green

You now are the owner of your own business. You have a business name, a tax
ID number for the state and an EIN number for the IRS. Now how do you figure
out how to pay my taxes?

Uncle Sam always wants his fair share so the plan is not too hard. First you
need to keep good records of every dollar you make in your business and
every dollar you spend in your business. I HIGHLY recommend a separate
checking account, debit card and credit car that is only used for your
business. In your checking account you want to deposit every sale, whether
cash or credit card or paypal. Be sure to label in your checkbook register
what the customers name was for that deposit. Keep a written receipt of that
sale as well. For every expense for your business, use only your business
checking account or debit card or credit card. Keep receipts for all
expenses.

At the end of each month after you have paid all your bills for the business
you can take out a personal draw and pay yourself. You do not take taxes
from this. Simply write yourself a check and enter it in your checkbook as
owners draw. That is the profit on your business. In the beginning of your
business you may not have any profit or you may choose to keep it in the
business to buy more products or use for advertising or other business
expenses. The owner’s draw is not an expense but rather just a way to take
out your owner’s equity of the business.

A good soft ware program will help you track all of your finances. You can
use Microsoft Money, Quicken or QuickBooks. There are also other good ones
out there. The main thing is to enter in your income and expenses and print
a monthly report. At the end of the year print a yearly report too. This
program will give you most of the numbers you need for taxes.
You may have other expenses for your business that were either paid out of
your home account (not a good idea) or on a credit card or that you paid
cash for. Enter those in your software program too. IRS prefers to see a
clear separation of business money and home money.

Remember things like travel expenses, your Internet Service Provider if you
have an online business, long distance, ink for your printer, a second phone
line to run your online business, postage, printing, etc.
Another big deduction is the miles you travel in your car for your business.
Keep a log in your car listing the miles on your car on January 1 and on
December 31 of each year. List each day you drive where you went for
business and how many miles it was. The yearly deduction for miles varies
from 32-37 cents a mile so this deduction adds up. I learn to plan some
business activities, purchases or contacts whenever I am out driving. (you
can also deduct volunteer miles (church, scouts, PTA, etc at 15 cents a mile
on your personal taxes - not business).

Remember to keep track of all the products you donate for advertising,
prizes for contests, samples, etc. You want to deduct those items at your
cost. Also deduct any bad debt, bounced checks, returns and bank fees. And
printing, postage, advertising, internet connection, web page hosting,
office supplies, etc.

If you carry inventory of products then at the end of the year you need to
take an inventory count of what you have on hand. If this is your first year
in business then your opening inventory would be 0. If you had inventory at
the end of last year, then that becomes your beginning inventory this year.
You count inventory by your COST. If you carry inventory you can deduct the
space of the room where you keep them (as a home office deduction-even if
the room is used for other things).
For your business you will fill out a Schedule C on your federal taxes. On
that form you will enter
Your gross sales (income) for the whole year MINUS
Your cost of good sold (inventory bought) PLUS
Your inventory at year end MINUS
All your expenses

Your mileage expenses will be figured on another form and then entered on
your schedule C as a dollar amount.
If you have profit at the end of this form you will enter that number on the
front of your 1040 Tax form (which will increase your family income). You
will also have to figure the self-employment tax on that profit. If you have
a loss on the Schedule C then that negative number is entered on your 1040
Federal form (which reduces your family income). Then as you complete your
1040 Tax form you figure your taxes due for all your family income. This way
Uncle Sam gets taxes on your business income.
I personally like to use software like Tax-Cut or Turbo Tax Home Business to
figure all this out. It makes it easy and asks you all the right questions
for your tax forms. You do still have to have the income and expenses
numbers for your business and the mileage numbers.

If you owe more than $500 in taxes after all this, you may be required to do
quarterly tax payments the following year for your business. Be aware to
watch for that. You can do voluntary quarterly payments if you are making
profit too. Figure 15-28% on federal depending on your tax bracket.

If you live in a state with a sales tax (I do not) then you will probably
have another form to complete yearly or quarterly for all the sales you make
and sales tax your collect to your customers in your home state.
Remember IRS wants you to make a profit in 3 out of 5 years. If you do not
make a profit this often then they may not let you take the business
deductions - counting your business as a hobby instead of a business. Make
sure you make your business look like a business. Get business cards,
business license, advertising materials, business checking account, EIN#
etc.
PS. I am not a tax account or CPA. I am simply a business owner. So please
make all tax and legal decisions with the help of a professional. You may
want to hire a bookkeeper or accountant to check things over when you are
done. And that would be a write-off too.
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FREE WAHM stuff http://www.123homebusinessguide.com
FREE Family Stuff http://www.mypreciouskid.com/free.html
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Do What You Do Best!
By Kay Green
I was looking at so many doing multiple direct sales companies. Some hop
from company to company. How well is that working for you? How do you split
you time between them? Is the one you are most passionate about the one you
spend most of your time on? Is it the one bringing in the most income?

Many are looking for the perfect company in order to be successful. To me I
finally listened to what a mentor told me. "Kay find what you are passionate
about, what you do best and DO THAT? Stop trying to be all things to all
people. What is your niche?"
That was such great advice. I was dabbling in multiple products and trying
to make money in lots of ways. Every time something new came along that
looked promising I tried that too. Finally I said I am going to WORK My Precious KidŽ for the LONG haul, not the short run. Amazingly when I did thatmy business turned around.

I remembered that if I opened a store in town I would have to: advertise,
tell people where I was, tell them I had a product they needed or wanted and
convinced them they needed to buy it from me. That would take time and
consistent effort each and every day to build up my clientele. I decided to
do the same with my online business. That meant getting offline some and
working person to person in my community as well as my online business. I
realized with 3 million sites I would have to work hard to get a full
business online only. It was Better to use my site to accent my offline
business and help my customers I already had..
Beth Owen was an inspiration to me as well. She was working her business
everyday with only 1 or 2 products and getting multiple orders monthly. She
also had others selling for her.

Last January (after being asked by several how they could do my business) I
took on a couple sales reps. I had no idea that a year later I would have 80
reps working hard to make their business successful which in turn also
helped my business be successful. And the fun part is I get to help and
encourage them in how to run a successful business too.
I encourage you to ask God what you do best and what direction HE is leading
your business. HE is the master business planner :) He is taken me farther
than I could have imagined. And then do what you do best. Go where your
passion is. And work your business for the LONG HAUL, not the short run.

Yes business means making adjustments in the products and the methods but
the business remains the same. People know me as Kay of My Precious KidŽ.
That is a valuable thing not easily gained. Become know for what you do
best. Get rid of the other business stuff that distracts you from doing your
best on your primary business. http://www.mypreciouskid.com
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Copyright 2003 Kay Green

Subscribe to this newsletter at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/preciouskids/ 
Read past Newsletters http://www.mypreciouskid.com/articles/index.html

Articles written by Kay Green, Christian homeschool mom to Melissa 21,
Jordan 18, Allison 16, Haley 3. Her and her husband of 24 years live in
rural Oregon with the kids, 2 dogs, and 1 cats. 

Kay owns http://www.MyPreciousKid.com children's ID products and home
business program. Kay loves helping others have a successful home business
too. http://www.PreciousKids.org Adoption & Homeschool Resources,
http://www.123HomeBusinessGuide.com and
http://www.KayGreen.com 

COPYRIGHT 2003 My Precious KidŽ, Kay Green
All rights reserved. Reprinting is only with permission and with this
author's box and copyright intact.

Join 1ChristianWAHM at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/1ChristianWAHM/