A'int this the truth!

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You're invited to Small Business Saturday!

Wanted to cue you in before you get into your Turkey coma - we're so excited to team up with Little Feet & More in Cherry Creek (Denver, CO) for Small Business Saturday, November 26, 2011 from 10-2.

Forty under 40!

I was thrilled to find out that LaunchHER (@launchher) was featuring yours truly on their 40 under 40 list of Women-Owned Brands.  Yep! Me, Jenny, the little ol' suburban momma of 3.  Did I mention I was thrilled?

Check out the AHHH-MAZING list of women I was featured amongst here

Small Business - A Word to the Wise

In the past few months I've seen some businesses, that I do business with, get burned by internet/email scams for large wholesale orders.  That sucks!  They not only lose out on inventory, but they lose money & their precious time too. 

I thought I would write up a quick post to help you distinguish one of these scams...And NOTE - I've been burned and had to learn the hard way too. 

This email is straight out of my inbox..

"Hello sales,
I will love to purchase from you but before I can do that I will like to know whether you can ship product's to Asia (Korea) and to know more about your market and to also know your mode of payment because I will be making payment with my credit card, so please i will be expecting to hear from you soon for me to place my order.  AND MY ADDRESS IS:

103-103 Yangwoo Apt,
323 Sosadong Sosaku Buncheon City
Kyunggido
Korea


Note: I need your product website

Regards"

Let's break this baby down:

1) Aside from the giant run-on sentence (if you can look past it), the fact that they can only make payment via credit card should clue you in - they are frauds.  Don't EVER do this!  What many new business owners don't know is that you are not protected from international fraud if and when the chargeback occurs.  People, they are using stolen credit cards.  A lot of times they will want to make 2 separate payments with 2 different credit card numbers.  Even Paypal payments can be sketchy.

2) The "Note" at the bottom should also give you a major smack in the noggin that they are sending these blanket emails to any email address they can get their hands on and have no idea what your products are.  They don't care what your products are.  They want your goodies and they want to use stolen credit card numbers to get it.  If you end up having a conversation with them and get an order, they will politely ask that you ship it quickly (because it will take about 2-3 weeks for the actual credit card holder to find out that their info has been stolen and report it to their bank).  By then they will have your product and you will be out everything.  The money will be automatically retrieved from your bank account and will NOT be returned to you.  Even if you prove you shipped the product - YOU LOSE!

Things you can do to verify if/if not a company is legit -

Have the "company" fill out a new vendor application.  Ask for their information up front and in return let them know that they must pay you with a wire transfer upon order placement.  Yes, you do have to give out your bank account information (you can get your wire transfer information from your bank), but they cannot withdraw money from your account, only transfer money into it.  Make sure this money is sitting in your account BEFORE you begin pulling or creating their order. Don't waste your time. This step should deter anyone who is not legit.

I know the prospect of receiving really large orders is exciting (especially in this economy)!  There are plenty of international businesses that are wanting your fabulous product.  These scams have ruined it for them.  Protect yourself.  Say upfront what you need to get moving on the order (and stand by it!).  If they don't want to follow your policies - you don't want to do business with them. 

Remember, you are building a relationship and you are NOT desperate (they can totally smell it).  Good luck!

Have you been scammed before?  Share the story here and spread awareness.

Mom of the Month - June!

Of all the hats I wear on a daily basis, the one that I'm most proud of, which challenges me the most, but also brings me the most reward, is the Mom hat.  (Well, and wifey too, but only 1 person can give out that award).  So I was thrilled, flabbergasted and honored (yes, all the at the same time) when Cupcake Mag/Sprinkles (@cupcakemag) offered me the title of Mom of the Month for June.  We absolutely adore Cupcake Mag/Sprinkles (Casi) for her delicious style, the Etsy finds (addicted), and the love and support Casi offers me on a daily basis.  Plus I think she thinks I'm the funniest person in the world and laughs at all my jokes, which totally makes me a fan of hers.

 Read "A Day in the life of Moi!" over at Cupcake Mag/Sprinkles. And if you're so inclined, follow the blog, you WON'T regret it!!

And now I'm back, with a baby in tow!

It's been a while. I've neglected the blogging, well, because I had a baby back in December - Oscar Timothy, born 12/21/09. And it has taken everything I have to get myself back to normal (I guess "normal" is all relative). Finally now after 4 months I can see the light at the end of the tunnel - the tunnel being my motivation and imagination again. So, sorry if you've been holding your breath since my last post..Oops - you can breath now! PHEW!

Here is my little toe-headed chubby guy just weeks after his arrival...

(photo by Syd of www.justbphotos.com)

And I wanted to announce to you that I am back...and trying my hardest at blogging. Let me know what you wanna know. I've got a few ideas up my sleeve, so stay tuned. And I hope you all are wonderful.

Let's do coffee!

I am always flattered when I receive an email from ambitious, budding, entrepreneurs, wanting to get started. It's crazy how their demeanor changes from the beginning of a meeting with their list of questions (all organized like) happy and sunshiney (is that a word?), and by the end of the meeting they look like a deer in headlights, big eyes, all pastey white. With the "To Do's" and the "To Don'ts" adding up. It can get confusing and overwhelming. Shoot, even I get overwhelmed thinking about EVERY.LITTLE.THING that needs to be done, and Monkey-Toes has been going for 6 years now. So folks, if you think it gets easier, you're crazy!

So I came up with this idea... I want to use this blog as an open forum to talk about business. Yes, from time to time, I will still add my own random $.02 (did you know there is no cents sign on the keyboard??), celeb sightings, new product, deep thoughts by Jenny Ford, etc. But I really LOVE helping people out - the prob is that there is just not enough time in the day to meet with everyone.

I will have some guest bloggers from time to time to answer the questions that I cannot or do not know an answer to - especially the money stuff - numbers and I wrestle, we do not get along.

If you want to remain annonymous, email directly at jenny@monkey-toes.com.

So, grab your cup of coffee and let's get started... what will be the first topic? Ask a question and I will blog about it...Go ahead, don't be shy :)

Ok, I will bribe you - IF I USE YOUR TOPIC FIRST, YOU WILL RECEIVE 4 PAIRS OF MONKEY-TOES SOCKS!

This is a disclaimer - read carefully - please note that I am not the master entrepreneur, I do not give myself that title, I am still a living, breathing, business owner/mom/human/woman making daily mistakes/successes, trying to run a business as best I know how. All I can offer to you is my personal experience or maybe ideas that I wish I could do. I encourage you to seek out a second opinion! And I also advocate you to chime in when you have information on a topic, feel free to challenge me as well.