If your kids dressed up for Halloween, come and share!  If YOU dressed up for Halloween, come and share close-ups!

Every year we have a Halloween Picture Share, so this year I thought I’d add a little more fun to the mix.  One of the posters will be chosen at random to receive a Starbucks gift card!  You have from now through Monday morning to share your Halloween pictures, and at noon on Monday, November 1, a winner will be randomly selected.

Not a member yet?  What are you waiting for?!?!  We have all the tools you need to learn and grow your online business, and as you can see we have a lot of fun along the way!

Filed under: Freebies, Giveaways and Prizes, The Daily Stork by Rebecca
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As I announced a few weeks ago, Lifetime Premier Memberships are for sale again.  An ‘early-bird’ discount is available for those who are ready to take the plunge, but today is the last day!

If you are ready to join today, October 18th, you can still save $15 on a lifetime membership!

If not, never fear!  You can still become a lifetime member for $129 through December 14th.  Even at ‘full’ price, this is a big savings over paying monthly bills, and you are sure to reap the rewards of membership for years to come!  Many of our Lifetime Members have found that they easily make their membership money back in the first month using a tip they found in the forums!

So what are you waiting for?  Become a Lifetime Premier Member today!  Not only will you save money and gain business knowledge, you’ll be entered into a drawing for great prizes, too!

Filed under: Freebies, Giveaways and Prizes, General HCTS Info by Rebecca
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The winner of this week’s mini-challenge to organize already listed inventory is mom2gymgirls. Congratulations on your hard work this week and I’m sure your work will pay off having a nice, neat space to store your inventory.

And to everyone who is still working to complete the SS HCTS challenge, you’ve got a few days left, so keep on listing!!!!

Filed under: Freebies, Giveaways and Prizes, Listing Challenges by jmk_akk
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Whew, the month of September has just flown by and here we are with only a week left in the SS HCTS challenge!

So, how are you doing? Are you listing daily to meet your goal of 75 for the month? Already done? Struggling to reach your goal?

The final stretch of any challenge can be the hardest. The motivation sometimes dies down, you get tired of the “same ole, same ole” routine and it’s hard to keep up.

But don’t quit now! Remember, everyone who gets their 75 listings in the month of September will be entered into a drawing for a $50 prize.  And if you’re already done with the listings for the month, keep participating in the mini-challenges for a chance to win more prizes!

Remember to comment on Monday’s blog post to enter this week’s mini-challenge and be entered in the running for the receipt organizer. You have until Friday to complete the task of organizing some of your listed inventory. Don’t put it off, get started now!

Filed under: Freebies, Giveaways and Prizes, Listing Challenges, Motivation by jmk_akk
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Last week many of you played along with my mini-challenges.  Thank you!  Not only did you help yourselves by doing the work, but you helped to motivate your sister storks as well.

Your efforts and enthusiasm are contagious!

Thank you so much for being the sharing, supportive community that you are, ladies!

But now on to the more specific accolades.  Completing all 5 mini-challenges were:

annzo

kimberlyht

mom2gymgirls

tylermads

{The ‘S’ challenge is where we lost most of the participants!}

Kudos to you ladies for all of your hard work!

I put the usernames in alphabetical order, and then used Random.org to pick a number.

And so, the lucky winner is…

Kimberlyht!

Congratulations!  And again, thank you to everyone who participated, whether you did so for one day or all five.  Every little bit helps!

Filed under: Freebies, Giveaways and Prizes by BellaBuggy
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Happy Monday fellow Storks! I don’t know about all of you but September is simply flying by for me. Have you stuck to your goal this month? Is the Serious September challenge keeping you motivated and on-task?

Xochilt and Heather have had you working on some mini-challenges the past couple weeks and I am going to do the same. If you’ve been following the blog and posting in the Challenge Chat forum, then you should have been working on your “Mt. Unlisted.” Is it getting a little less overwhelming? I have worked on mine as well and I feel so much better about the state of my office.

This week I’m going to set up another week-long mini challenge complete with a prize at the end of the week.

You’ve sorted Mt. Unlisted.

You’ve taken some pictures.

You’ve done some listings.

Now, I want you to organize them. Yep. That’s your challenge for the week. I’ll leave it up to you how to do it (we all have our different inventory organization and storage methods) – but I want to see/hear about your progress.

If your recently listed inventory needs hung up….hang it up. If it needs folded and put in a tub, fold it up, put it in the tub. If it needs an inventory tag, get to tagging. But whatever you do, don’t let your Mt. Unlisted pile just regroup itself into a Mt. Listed pile.

In order to be in the running for this week’s prize, you need to leave a comment on this blog post about your organization goal for this week. The, follow up in the Challenge Chat forum later this week with your goal and whether or not you met it…..and pictures of your progress! Let’s see those clean offices and well-organized inventory storage.

The winner of this weeks mini-challenge will receive a receipt organizer (may vary from style/color shown). Use it to keep in your car or office….keep your business receipts in one spot and easy to find.

I will draw for a winner on Friday afternoon. You have all week to complete your task. Have fun and good luck!

Filed under: Freebies, Giveaways and Prizes, Listing Challenges, Organization and Storage by jmk_akk
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Do you know that Here Comes The Stork has a Facebook page? We’d love for you to become our fan!

Challenge: I’d like to get to 500 facebook fans by the end of the month! If we reach 500 fans by the end of this month, I will give one lucky fan a free year-long HCTS subscription!! Recommend us to your friends!! Prize will be awarded on October 1st, if the goal is reached!

HCTS facebook fan page

Filed under: Freebies, Giveaways and Prizes, General HCTS Info by Rebecca
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So last week Xochilt asked you to make a list of listing goals for yourself, and yesterday I challenged you to post a picture of your own personal Mt. Unlisted.  Is it working yet?  Do you feel ashamed of that pile?  Are you motivated to dig into it?

Today I challenge you to dig in – in a very big way!

If you’re like most of us, Mt. Unlisted can contain things that give us pause.  Make us wonder why we bought them in the first place.  Things that we just don’t want to list, for whatever reason.

Those things are holding you back!

Today we put an end to that. Make yourself three bins

and get busy sorting!

You might not have a throwaway stack.  How about a ‘Take to the consignment store’ bin instead?  Or a ‘Craigslist’ stack?

If you sort through your unlisted inventory with an eye for what is really worth listing on eBay/Amazon and what will sell, but just not there, you will be creating smaller, more manageable groups.  And then we will tackle those!

Get cracking!  Today your task is to go through your inventory and divide up what you will keep and what will go elsewhere.  Make sure you post in Challenge Chat to let me know when you’re done!

Not a member yet?  Click this logo to get in on all the fun!

And again, we’ve got a month-long comment contest on on the blog, so sharing some comment love could pay off!

Filed under: Freebies, Giveaways and Prizes, Listing Challenges by BellaBuggy
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Do you ever feel like you just can’t get it together?

That’s the mode I’m in right now, and that’s why this blog post is going up at 6 pm instead of 6 am.

Okay realistically, I’m never up at 6 am.  Say 9-ish.

The problem is that even though I’ve ‘known’ I need to do this for weeks, I didn’t write it down.  I didn’t make it my priority.  And I didn’t plan ahead.

Which means that when the day rolls around, I’m unprepared.  I’m running late.  Sometimes, I forget altogether.

It’s White Rabbit mode.

I’m late, I’m late! For a very important date!

Now with a blog post, thankfully I can catch up in a few minutes.  But with our businesses, well… it’s rarely that simple.

Where do you stand?  Are you on track, caught up, ready for the next big thing?  Or are you like me, a day late and a dollar short?

Its easy to fall behind and hard to catch up.  Believe me, I know.

But catch up we must, and there’s no time like the present.

Right now, I need you to take a picture for me.  Get brave, and snap a photo of your own personal Mt. Unlisted.

Except that sign?  Not so much.  We are climbing this mountain, together.  And we’re starting today.

I’ve started a photo thread in the forum, in the Challenge Chat category.  Join me in posting your own personal disaster area unlisted inventory and you will have completed part one of this weeks’ challenge.

Each day for the next 4 days, I will give you another task to complete.  If you complete all 5, your name will be entered in a drawing for some cold, hard cash!  That’s right, PayPal funds, straight to you, so you can choose-your-own-prize.  A dent in the mountain and some moolah?  That’s a win-win!

Not a member yet?  Click the banner below and join us at HCTS so you, too, can start clearing out your home and making money in the process!

PS) Don’t forget the month-long comment contest on the blog!  Keep your comments coming, and you can win a prize for that, too!

Filed under: Freebies, Giveaways and Prizes, Listing Challenges by BellaBuggy
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Most sellers would agree that an overwhelming part of holiday selling is shipping. Preparing hundreds of packages for shipping can get pretty hectic. Personally, I would find packing peanuts inside the refrigerator! I couldn’t find the right box and was in such a hurry to get everything done, I would just toss the ones I didn’t need aside. At the end of the day, I had such a mess! I promised myself I would have a better system this year.

In my mind, a better system consists of having the necessary materials on hand. Plan on buying plenty of packing peanuts and using some sort of pitcher to transfer them into the boxes. Last year, I was throwing peanuts in boxes with my hands and half of the ones I picked up would go overboard and end up all over my living room!

Also, I have quite the collection of boxes I’ve saved throughout the year. I plan on measuring them and labeling them with the measurements so I am not having to do that to each box looking for the one I need. If you don’t have plenty of boxes yet, start collecting. Let friends and family know you need some boxes!

Finally, I plan on buying (or making) myself a drafting table with plenty of clear space for me to work on! Using the coffee table doesn’t work well because someone else might need it and/or spill coffee on your stuff!

Homework for today: Set up your shipping space! I want to hear about and/or see a designated, organized space for you to prepare your packages. Even if you don’t have all the supplies yet, show me where you plan on putting them. Comment here and then post in the HCTS Challenge thread I posted yesterday.

Remember, I’ll be tallying points for a prize at the end of the week!

Join us in the HCTS forums for more tips! We’d love to hear from you too!

xgirl

Filed under: Freebies, Giveaways and Prizes, The Daily Stork by Xochilt
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