It’s 2:30 and I just sat down from putting my little dude down for a nap.

As you may have guessed, I’m at home today.  A nasty ear infection has thrown our daily routine into a bit of a whirlwind.

As I was upstairs rocking Jack to sleep, I got to thinking about how wonderful it is that I can stay at home with him and spend the day snuggling him back to health. I have no worries that projects are falling behind or that clients are left stranded. The team at kitestring doesn’t miss a beat when a hiccup is thrown into the team mix. Having this kind of team behind me lets me to ‘be in the moment’ when life happens and I need to wear my mom cape for the day.

I came to realize pretty quickly in my mompreneur career that working from home was not for me. It was too tempting to throw on a load of laundry in between emails and perhaps a batch of muffins if I was lucky. Turns out, I’m much more productive and happy when I have focused time for both work and home.

Having said that, I knew that to accomplish this structured work and home life, I also need a strong support on the childcare team as well.  Having this allows me to ‘be in the moment’ when I’m at the kitestring office. I never worry about Jack or feel guilty that I’m not at home with him.

Figuring out this work / mom formula has taken me some time but in the end, I know it makes me the best mom and business owner that I can be.

Okay, Blog post done! Maybe I still have time to vacuum before Jack wakes up…

-jenn

As part of our brand, kitestring always sends out fun Valentines Day cards to all of our partners and clients. This year we mailed 4 cards (one from each of us) in a brown paper bag with the receivers name written on the front of the bag. Just like  in grade school, all our friends opened up the lunch bag to find little love notes from everyone at kitestring.

We hope you have a Happy Valentines Day!

XXXXOOOO

kitestring

We have a new Facebook page. Check us out and if you love kitestring become a fan. Click here!

This has to be the craziest thing the internet has ever cooked up.
Chat Roulette pairs you up with a random videochat partner…. from anywhere, doing anything.
You can stay and chat or click “next” anytime you want. This has to be the only place where you can chance it to find dimly lit creepy people, giggling college sorority girls or serenading Turkish guitar players.
I remember this same feeling when I first found a chat room in like 1996… vast, exciting, yet personal, weird and kind of dangerous.

Like gambling, the thrill of seeing the unfiltered lives of strangers can be addictive, but be warned. Chat Roulette is definitely in its beta stage, and the self monitored filtering of inappropriate behaviour can be… uncomfortable to say the least. The disclaimer on the site lists “inappropriate behaviour” and asks that you “report it” with a button on the top left. The site also says you should be 16 yrs of age or older to use this service… but anyone can.

Then there is the whole “what if” thought about this game to keep you awake at night. No matter who you’re connected to, and whether what your videochat partner is doing is wrong or right, when either of you click “next” they are gone for good into the abyss of the net.

I never bring a lunch to work. I know, I know. This is a good way to get fat (or fatter in my case) and go broke. But I just can’t do it. I’m not opposed to cooking. I actually really enjoy it. But for me, a paper bag lunch is the definition of an uninspired-lackluster-underwhelming surprise.

Each day at about 11:30, as I sit working away at my computer, my stomach starts to grumble and I let out a big “I’M HUNGRY!” And not until that very moment do I now what it is I’m hungry for. Could be pizza. Could be a big bowl of soup. Could be Modern Indian Buffet. I decide what I’m going to eat at about 11:45 and then I’m out the door for my daily walk to the local eatery.

I look at Business Plans in the same way. We all know what a Business Plan is. Your basic “Who works here?”, “What do they do?”, “What happens if someone loses a pen?”Business plans serve a purpose. Without them how would you know what to do if, well, someone lost a pen.

A Business Plan also helps you plan for the future. What are your business opportunities? Who is your target market? What’s your financial forecast for the year?

But, like a paper bag lunch, a business plan is the definition of uninspired-lackluster-underwhelming surprise. Life happens. Markets change. Stocks crash. Suddenly your audience isn’t there. Everyone stops using the pens you might lose. What then?

I’m not knocking Business Plans. Hell, we have one at kitestring. What I am saying is that it’s always good to leave some room for surprise. Make sure your Business Plan lives and isn’t a three ringed binder sitting on your shelf collecting dust. Add to it. Subtract from it. Roll with the punches. You’re business is a living, breathing, lunch eating organism. Don’t let your Business Plan be a dead, dust collector.

At any moment your business could go “I’M HUNGRY”, and sometimes that planned bologna sandwich and juice box just won’t suffice.

“Oh, who cares what So’n’so said! They only have (eek!) 55 followers!”

Heard that one before? Naughty as this kind of thinking might seem, pooh-poohing on new social media users is the new “in” thing. Its even newer and cooler than pooh-poohing on gurus who preach about social media ON social media.

Let us not discourage newcomers to the fold, friends and unfriends! This behaviour is unbecoming!

Social media finishing school is underway @EttieKit

La te da!

It’s a beautiful day in socialmediaville!

Ettie Kit here to report on Social Media no-no-Number 1: Not everything is worth Tweeting.
Find me @EttieKit on twitter!

Enjoy this? Well then you’ll certainly enjoy Snow Ball: A Social Media Social

Join me and a spot of tea!

More info and registration below:

We`re not Lumberjacks and that`s o.k.

The next HYPE event will be on the upper level of Slainte Irish Pub in Hamilton beginning after your nine to five grind on Wednesday, February 17th 2010.
Get acquainted with the idea meeting other young creatives, marketers, media professionals and cultural entrepreneurs in your city who work all day and probably work more all night.
So get out the cabin for a night and bring your friends, eh!

Come get half in the bag, have more lip than a rubber boot, and forget about jiggin’ yer squid. Lord love a duck!*

We’re here.
There’s beer.
And Hamilton better get used to it.

Wednesday, February 17th
Beginning after your nine to five grind.
Slainte Irish Pub (upstairs)
33 Bowen Street, Hamilton ON

Contact kitestring for more info
t.905 296 9575
e. meg@kitestring.ca

*Come out and drink, talk a lot and forget about work. My goodness!

Come on CRTC! Why do you do this to us? We (as in us Canadians) can only see the hyped up Super Bowl ads “if you get your television signal over the air, have an illegal satellite dish or move to Buffalo”.

I just don’t understand! Every year around this time the morning television shows and radio shows are all the same, touting Valentines Day lame-o products and how to mix pink cocktails for “the ladies” and chili recipes, beer specials and zantac promos for Super Bowl parties for “dudes”. Then the following Monday after Super Bowl Sunday, the same Canadian television morning shows talk about the hilarious ads that appeared on the American broadcast of the big game.

Why, oh why?! Unless you hopped on YouTube, you didn’t even see them!

A little research tells me that Pepsi has surveyed Canadians about their disappointment in the Super Bowl ad exclusion and have decided to make a special 60 second spot to give us all a big hoot!

Sigh.

Someone prove me wrong

Oh, to be a young creative in glorious Hamilton!

Today I imagined the possibilities in tea cups, wrote of Divas, spoke of fiddles and performed an entire puppet show! (We’ll reveal these creations later.)

All in a days work! At kitestring we create branded experiences that you can really sink your teeth into. Thank goodness there are grammatical limits to keep me in check! I knew I wouldn’t fit in with the monkey typists.

Lucky me!