Business | Table for Five

Buried in Email

August 11, 2009 By Elizabeth

Mail Everyone says, “just write about your life”. Well, that graphic over there? That is my life right now. Okay, so Ryan is helping out more around the house than ever even when he would rather be with his friends, and Nathan is mowing the lawn now for spending money, and Kaitlyn came up to me the other day while I was wearing a shirt that reads “happy mom” (all lowercase on it) and correctly identified all the letters, and that’s what ELSE is going on in my life, but mostly? It’s email.

Those of you who follow me on Twitter or on Facebook know that I’ve been posting a lot recently about trying to achieve this mystical state of being known as “Caught Up.” That I’m trying, so hard, every day, to not just stay on top of the emails but to get through the ones I’ve already opened that need me to do something. But people, I’m losing the fight and I don’t know what to do.

Let’s look at Outlook as of today. Outlook is where I read the emails that come to elizabeth(at)table4five(dot)net, the professional address I use for this blog. As of right now, I have 255 items in my inbox. 39 are unopened messages. So that leaves 216 emails that I opened and did not delete because the messages relate to something I need to do. Like, a review I agreed to write or a giveaway I agreed to host. TWO HUNDRED SIXTEEN.

Clearly, I am way in over my head.

Solutions I’ve considered-

deleting everything and starting fresh. Problem with that- all the people who sent me those emails who will think I dropped off the face of the earth, or will just think I’m unprofessional for never doing their review or giveaway.
Hiring someone else to write the posts. Problem with that- how does someone else write a review for me? If I have to tell someone else what I thought of a product, I might as well write the review!
Hiring someone else to read the emails and categorize them for me. I actually did that with Ryan this past year, when I was just so swamped. I may have to make him an offer he can’t refuse

And before you ask, yes, I do say No. I say No A LOT. Every day, every single day of the week, I get, on average, 150 emails to that table4five(dot)net address. As I’m typing this, notifications are popping up in the bottom right corner of my screen telling me that new emails are arriving. Two more people are wondering when their reviews will post, when their giveaways will start.

If I only posted one thing per day, I would have what, 8 MONTHS worth of posts? There has to be a better solution.

I’m guessing that everyone who runs any kind of home business where they still have young kids in the house is having this same problem. So please, SHARE. Tell me your tips. What would you do if you were me right now? How would you dig yourself out? I’m open to any and all suggestions.

And chocolate. Or ice cream. Or a hot personal assistant. You could send those too

Filed Under: Born to Blog Tagged With: Business, home, organizing, work

A Caveman’s Guide to Sponsored Conversations

May 17, 2009 By Elizabeth

: Image via CrunchBase

I’m a Mom, I’m a blogger, and I’m a brand enthusiast. When I find a product that I really like, I tell people about it. I tell my family, my real life friends, my online friends-heck, I tell strangers at stores about it. What I do has a name, it’s called word-of-mouth marketing, and people have been doing for as long as there has been conversation. And now, major companies are compensating bloggers for telling their online friends and readers what they think about products in what is called a sponsored conversation.

IZEA, the social media marketing company for which I am a compensated Insider, sponsored this post about sponsored conversations.Â And I’ve got a video that IZEA asked me to put in this post about what exactly a sponsored conversation is and how it works.Â I might be able to work the words ‘sponsored conversation’ into this post a few more times if I try

This clever video explains what a sponsored conversation (see?!) is, who uses them, and why they work. Enjoy!

Filed Under: Sponsored Posts Tagged With: Blog, Brand, Business, IZEA, Marketing and Advertising, Social media, Social media marketing, Word of mouth

Site review- The Exit Store

April 19, 2009 By Elizabeth

Here’s something I bet most people don’t think that much about but can be found in every building everywhere- EXIT SIGNS. Building codes require exits to be clearly marked, whether it’s an office building or restaurant or school. Talk about something we take for granted! We assume that in any public building, we will be able to figure out quickly where the exits are, and that’s where The Exit Store comes in.

Until I reviewed this site, I had NO IDEA how many different kinds of exit signs there are. They come in “thermoplastic”, steel, and aluminum. They can be self-luminous (some kind of glow in the dark material so that the sign glows without need for batteries or an external power source), or lit with LED bulbs. For “high abuse” areas like correction facilities, apartment buildings, and schools, exit signs can be made with tamper-resistant materials and even housed behind steel cages.

Different cities have different requirements for compliance, meaning that The Exit Store carries exit signs that are New York compliant as well as Chicago compliant. This is a scary yet comforting thought- what would you do if you were in a building during an explosion? (YIKES) You’d want to be able to find your way out, right? The Exit Store has an exit sign category called “explosion proof”.

The Exit Store has something for every budget, from value priced to a designer series. They work with governments, schools, businesses both big and large, profit and non-profit. Their site says they can work to find a price and product to suit any need. If you’re reading this and have a need to purchase exit signs for a building, I hope you’ve found this post useful. We might be in a recession, but some things will always be important.