I'm a full-time mummy

I received a pitch about this book and decided to request for a review copy. Being a SAHM doesn't mean I won't have chance or opportunity (in future?) to run my own business, plus I'm helping my hubby in the admin side of his business, so I thought I'd give this book a try and see what's in it for us. So here goes my review for the "The Barefoot Executive " book:

Title: The Barefoot Executive: The Ultimate Guide for Being Your Own Boss and Achieving Financial Freedom
Author: Carrie Wilkerson
Publisher: Thomas Nelson (August 23, 2011)
ISBN-13/-10: 978-1595553690 / 159555369X 
Paperback:  256 pages
Dimension:  9.1 x 5.8 x 1 inches

Description from the product page:
"For the person who longs to run their business from home, author and highly successful entrepreneur Carrie Wilkerson says it is possible (she doesn't just say it though, she shows you how). In her new book, The Barefoot Executive, Carrie helps readers of all types understand the necessary ingredients in starting and running a lucrative home-based business. You’ll learn how to reclaim your time, determine your income, and change your lifestyle-all while keeping personal priorities intact.

Successful at running her own seven-figure business from home and being an active speaker on the subject, Carrie demonstrates business models with tables and charts in an easy-to-understand format. Chapters within the book include such subjects as finding a target markets, developing marketing strategies, and brand development. Especially important are the common pitfalls listed to avoid in starting a business from home.

The Barefoot Executive offers the opportunity to live life on your terms with the financial freedom to do it. Want to start your workday with e-mail and coffee on the back patio? Want the flexibility of joining your fourth grader on an all-day field trip? Are you ready to take that vacation you’ve been planning for years? Then you have a choice to make, and The Barefoot Executive will help jumpstart your transition.

You’ll learn:
    * Your “why.” The most important question. Why do you want to work for yourself?
    * What type of business best suits your experience and talents.
    * How to stay focused on your goal and avoid distractions.
    * Where to find the support that will accelerate your success.
    * How to link your business to the right market.

Whether it’s a service, a product, or your insight or expertise, you already have the raw materials necessary to transform your life. Carrie will walk you through the process of building the business you need to achieve the life you want. Her guidance is practical. No philosophical silliness, no theoretical abstractions—just concrete action steps alongside insights from fellow entrepreneurs, interactive exercises, and links to Carrie’s online video coaching segments. It’s the next best thing to working one-on-one with her. The Barefoot Executive will have you energized by the possibilities and embracing the extraordinary life that is well within your reach. "

I like the statement on one of the intro pages where it says "Get passionate about getting to the place of profitability."

I find the first chapter itself inspiring as it is an eye opener on the myths about being successful in starting your own business. There are quite a number of inspiring quotes to be found in this book such as:

"Winners compare their achievements with their goals, while losers compare their achievements with those of other people.
—Nido Qubein"

The point to be taken into consideration is never to compare ourself with others. You may find others achieving success easily but the important thing is not to use that as an excuse or discouragement but more to use it as a push to move on, move forward in order to be successful ourself.

Under chapter 2, we find the 3 common mistakes that people make when starting their own business. These 3 mistakes are  further explained in their own subchapters.

I like the way this book presents some real life example in the form of "Barefoot Case Study" - shows to us how other individuals face their own challenges and overcome them.

The rest of the chapters are quite informational as it touches on the topics of the methids to apply, on what type of models should your business be based on, and venturing into the marketplace.

You can get this book from Amazon or http://barefootexecutivebook.com/.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a PDF copy of the book by Living Your Moment in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous book reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My Book Reviews"

Came across this inspiring quote about friends...

Now, if you can see my personal Facebook page, you will see that I have 400+ friends. I'm not saying those are not friends, just that they are ex-colleagues, relatives, high school friends, primary school friends, college friends, SAHM friends, bloggy friends and so on.

Anyway, if I really have to count the number of friends I can count on (excluding God and my husband) in times of trouble, sadness and need to grumble, I'd have to say TWO.

One is my bestie since high school. We could talk about our high school life, working life, family life and just plain grumble about anything.

One is a SAHM bloggy friend (we finally met up during the recent Chinese New Year after months chatting on MSN hahahah) We could talk about SAHM life, family life and life with kids and again, just plain grumble about anything!

With these 2 bestie of mine, we can just drop the conversation suddenly and continue with our busy life and then resume our chat few days later or the next time we got around to chatting.

These 2 bestie of mine understand and never critisize what I do or the decision I make or the feelings I'm having. Heck, they supported and even helped release my tensions as well.

So, this post is to be dedicated to my two bestie. Thanks for being there and for the times you listen to my grumbles and complains and accomplishments. When I need to vent out, when I need to brag and so on.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

May God continue to bless you both in everything you do.

I have read the "Who Moved My Cheese?" book so when I saw this book title, I was intrigued and decided to request for a review copy. Here goes my review for the "The Swiss Cheese Theory of Life " book:

Title:  The Swiss Cheese Theory of Life 
Authors: Judith Belmont, MS & Lora Shor, MSW
Publisher: Premier Publishing & Media; 1st edition (October 21, 2011)
ISBN-13/-10:  978-0982039892 / 0982039891
Paperback:  247 pages
Dimension:  8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches

Description from the product page:
"The Swiss Cheese Theory of Life is a book about resiliency. Using Swiss Cheese as a metaphor for life itself, you will explore ways to get through the holes rather than get stuck in them. Swiss is not like any other cheese - and neither are you! This self-help health and wellness book is sure to delight and enlighten - with a thick-sliced sense of humor. While it is whimsical in style, it deals with many serious and universal topics that affect our everyday lives. We distill important concepts from many sources, slicing them up into easily digestible chunks of information.

After all, Swiss is not like any other cheese and neither are you like anyone else! This wellness book is about thriving in the face of life's adversities, overcoming challenges, developing stress resilience, and making effective and long lasting changes for a happier life. Important training concepts are easily related through a light-hearted holistic approach that will touch your mind, body and spirit. Our expertise as psychotherapists and wellness speakers has reached thousands of people throughout the country - and now we want to reach out to you! Couldn't everyone benefit from Swiss Cheese Life resiliency training to help them move through life's holes instead of getting stuck in them?

Take the Swiss Cheese Theory of Life Challenge!
-Are you trying to make changes in your life, yet you find yourself digging deeper into a hole?
-Do you know better but can t seem to get out from under your unhealthy patterns or habits?
-Do you often have why does this happen to me thinking?
-Are you looking for happiness in all the wrong places?
-Are you ready to make healthy changes in your life ... physically, emotionally, spiritually?

If you answered yes to any of these questions help is here!"

* I like the way the authors compares life using Swiss Cheese (kinda makes you think and goes 'Ohhhh... I see....' when you read each chapter).

* Each chapter in the book are interesting to read and I love the illustrations in the book as well.

* I love how the authors uses W.A.I.T to represent the points for What Am I Thinking in page 86.

* I also love page 132 on the statement of "Opportunity is NOWHERE" - it depends on how you look at things, whether "Opportunity is Nowhere" or "Opportunity is Now Here!". Awesome!

* I love the lesson taught on page 224 about the ability to forgive others.

In summary, it is a book that shows you how to get through the holes in your life and how to overcome the obstacles and turned out to be a better person.

Highly recommended, do get a copy of this book for yourself too!!

Or, since Christmas is approaching why not get a copy as a gift for your loved ones or friends to start off the New Year with new perspective in life? 

You can get this book from Amazon.

And yeay!!! I am so happy to hear Ms. Belmont has generously offered to sponsor 1 copy of her book SIGNED by herself to 1 lucky follower / visitor on my blog! Yeap, if you are the winner, you get to own a copy of her book, signed and she will mail it to you anywhere you are!

OK then, just read below for the giveaway terms and entry form, OK?

To enter the giveaway, kindly read and follow the instructions as stated in the Rafflecopter form below.

• You can enter either via login through your Facebook account or just key in your name and your valid email address.
  
• Please also leave your valid email address in the post comment so that I can contact you if you win this giveaway.
  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

So what are you waiting for?!! Hurry up! You have 1 month time from now to join in the fun and try your luck!

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a PDF copy of the book by the author in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous book reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My Book Reviews"