If you are developing a new product, protecting your idea is critical for many reasons. David Fannin of Sorcit has some tips to help you. This week he discusses shipping and logistics.

Once your product(s) have been produced and packed for export, the final stage is getting the goods to the destination country.   This is likely to be either your warehouse, one of your distributors warehouse or directly into a multiple retailers warehouse.

I’ve been a work at home mum for four months, not very long. But I’m encouraged by how it’s going. Work is coming my way and the big challenge is fitting it around my three young children.
It took me a long time to decide what work I could do from home. I looked into lots of different opportunities. First of all I considered virtual assistant work, but I realised it was a competitive market. Many people already doing it had a stronger secretarial background than me, so instantly it seemed …

Name of Business: CompareXtraIncome.com
Your Name and Age: Hailey Thornton aged 27 years
Tell us about your family:
I live with my partner of 3 years, John who was a very brave man and took myself and two young boys on despite no children of his own!  My boys are exactly 12 months apart in age 5 and 6 years old now (how time flies!).  We moved to Monmouth in Wales to give the kids a better life and I would not want to live anywhere else!  We are now expecting our third …

Almost five years to the day after their launch, LittleStuff is finally flashing a new ankle at its browsers. Amidst all the doom and gloom, they are a tale of success – with over 200 companies listed on the site, their witty, honest and knowledgeable reviews are on the regular read lists of net-mums-who-know; they are often called on by features editors to provide filler items and images at the last minute, and they are much loved by some of the top names in the nursery industry (and by many …

Do you hope to start an online business? If you’re one of the many potential mumpreneurs around at the moment, Mel McGee’s book,

I got an email the other day from Bouf.com, an online market place for home accessories. It offers the chance to sell your products through their store, for a fee which varies from £49 to £299, plus commission.  It looks like a similar model to NotOnTheHighStreet.com. If you’ve signed up to sell through either of these portals, I’d love to hear what you think and how you have got on.

I’ve already mentioned Erica of Little Mummy and her plan to make £500 a month online, Now I’ve come across another mumpreneur blogger, Megan, who is writing a nice series of blogs about ways to monetise your website and make money from home.
If you’re keen to make 2009 the year that you make your online activities pay, check out Webmums for useful tips and advice from SEO expert Nikki Pilkington and the many members who are making money online.