ISSN Fact or Fiction: for Serious Home Business Owners and/or Newsletter Writser

International Standard Serial Number

Today's entrepreneur has to market himself and his product as much as he must be market-oriented and with both tasks comes the need to be professional. Whether you're a freelance health care provider, working a multi-level marketing business, running a daycare, or writing, there will come a time when you realize a newsletter, on- or off-line, is an information pushing time-saver your business cannot afford to do without: Enter the International Standard Serial Number.

ISSN for short, the International Standard Serial Number is the identifier accepted for periodicals (which are works published regularly on some type of schedule; GIIW!, for example, promises to publish their writer's newsletter sporadically, "never knowing" when you'll get your newsletter nor how often).

We've all seen the ISSN as a line of numbers or a barcode for decades-the letters "ISSN" are followed by two groups of four numbers (and/or possibly an X*) divided by a hyphen. This is commonplace enough you might not notice it.  

However unremarkable the ISSN has become, for the business owner/newsletter writer, it's use can be quite remarkable:

By obtaining and using an ISSN, you automatically lend an air of credibility to yourself and your newsletter in the way that a business card, once-upon-a-time, gave a buyer confidence in the card-giver and his gimmick. Sure it doesn't promise quality or usefulness--certainly there's no "buyer beware"--but that's beside the point: people believe in it and that alone is worth untold sums.

ISSNs have other relatively "just okay" points, such as electronic archiving and cataloging, which are especially useful in libraries, keeping your publication within public reach. Furthermore, while I've never personally seen this happen, it's been said newsletter old files can easily be updated across the board thanks to standard identification. 

TeraisaAtHome assumes you're a small business owner working from home and will not be submitting your newsletter into major institutions where cataloging is required for management and sanity's sake... having said that, IF YOU CAN - DO IT, because when you hit the big time with your newsletter and subscribers, the ISSN uses widen, allowing for better management of subscription and distribution. 

Bottom Line:
Apply for an ISSN for serial publications because having a leg up on competition from the get-go far outweighs the time it takes to fill out and send in the application.

Interactive Moments:
Share in our comments what is your newsletter and where can we find it? Have you obtained an ISSN? What caused you to make this decision? If you do not have an ISSN, are you now going to apply for one?

Where to Go:
What you fill out depends which country you are in or publishing in, be sure to read all the information that pertains to you before filling in the application found at ISSN.org

Home Party Business: SIX Parties?

As you know, I began this odyssey long before I actually applied. Because of that, I'll backtrack to that day and move forward until we are here. TODAY here.

The decision to become an At Home America consultant was easy. Applying, thanks to my mentor, Donna Moses, was easier. At Home America suggests and encourages you to book your first SIX parties before you apply, that meant I had to hurry and find hostesses because I was applying the day I received my application.

Luckily for me, Donna's daughter, Maureen, booked my first party - we live on the same island, making it easy for me to accept and her to commit. Donna was very happy about it and is sure to be the reason for Maureen's party success. How can you loose when your mother is your party girl's mom? We can't!

Five to go. I decided NOT to ask my family for many reasons. First of all, I've never seen At Home America anywhere but online. Not even one product. Though I know that I am confident in their products and hostess program, they do not. Family is often harder to convince then others because they know you and maybe have been in this position before (ha, ha!).

Second of all, I love challenges, and because I have not had any friends for about a year (other than my friends at home or online), it was high time to make new ones and invite them to enjoy my business. I said a prayer and took a leap. I asked anyone in my few Hawaii/military groups to help me out.

On a very serious note, many of you already have your friends and family nearby and you may have lived in your area a very long time. Might I suggest to wait on your family in order to expand your circle? Your first bookings, if coming from friends and new people, will have you feeling successful and on a business high. If it's family, it's great, but not the same. I know because I'm on that high, even while we speak! And guess what? When it's slow, maybe in January, I can now ask everyone in my family AND be even more excited about the quality and care of the product and At Home America.

(I'm apologizing now for rambling, I'm just very excited AND I have so much to share... my hopes are this will help just one person and myself become more efficient with their new home business and that it directly affects your family in a great way)

Anyway, back to I need five more bookings and I have my online application open and waiting. Armed with my one booking, I went to my personal Facebook page and using my personality, I made a request to watch me give you a fun party where you can laugh out loud at me while I practice being a home party direct sales consultant, and YOU get free gifts and specials and we all get free food, because I do encourage food and drinks - sometimes that's what hooks people. I'm not kidding (but that's an entirely new post because there are many people who think food and drinks are distracting, too).

I got party number two, as a catalog party, though I was not positive there are catalog parties available (I assumed from my designated time as a hostess - and there ARE those parties, called "e-show"). Here's a funny thing about Jennifer:

I've been a victim's advocate pretty much my entire life, but I've been putting my money where my mouth is for only a decade and a half. I have websites and professional social network accounts. To gain a better following, I did what social networks did; I played Mafia Wars. Yes, me. I know, I hate games, especially video games, but it worked. People came to me for play, but they stayed for my heart and they believe in the messages. Jennifer is one person.

When I called out for parties, even though I had stopped playing Mafia Wars a long time ago, she was there right away. We had conversations over the couple of years and it was natural, we were already friends in this technological world.

Jennifer is officially my first party. And she has my first questions, but is awesome by being patient while I learn.

And that's all for now... I have things to do, places to be. See you soon, when we can discuss the rest of my application and creative ways to get your first bookings.