Cyndi’s Work at Home Blog

Too many people are entering into working at home blindly and end up frustrated or throwing in the towel because they didn’t plan accordingly. Unless you are extremely creative, with some special connections and a run of good luck, you cannot expect to start a business and not spend any money. I think at times an individual is so excited about the prospect of working at home that they jump in with both feet, but with no plan on what to do after they start their business. This is why I always stress to people who want to work at home to take their time, research the companies or ideas they are thinking about, and make a plan.

A good number of new home based business owners seem to go down the “what do I do now” path after they start a business. Especially those that joined a direct sales/home party plan business. They may have had the carrot dangled in front of them about how easy it will be, about how much money they can make and about how they get to create their own work hours. They probably were not told about the monthly expenses that are inevitable which can range from: web hosting, phone bills, office products, training materials, postage, fees, a monthly commitment to buy products, and marketing/promoting their business. It is rare that a real business would require NO money in order to run, build and grow it.

Do yourself a favor, and plan as to what your monthly expenses will be. Think of everything that you possibly would need to keep your business going. There is something true about the old cliché “it takes money to make money”. Does this mean you need to have a fortune in order to start and run a business? No. But what is does mean that whether it is $10 or $1000 a month, a business does cost money to run. Those who think otherwise are not looking at a home business realistically or are not serious about keeping a business going. So, be smart, do your research, make sure you have set some money aside and make a plan before jumping into the work at home arena. You will find more success in the long run if you do.
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Cyndi Webb is the Founder and President of Moms Network - an organization dedicated to the promotion and success of Moms in business.  Since 1997 she has promoted and worked with thousands of work at home moms in coaching and guiding them in how to help grow their businesses.  Over the years Moms Network has evolved to include more than 20 websites offering free resources to moms from all walks of life, the Connecting @ Home print magazine and the annual Celebrating Moms Expo which attracts thousands of moms in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Cyndi makes her home in Minnesota with her husband and two children.

Looks like the public outrage and pressure has caused Facebook to do a turn around on their recent change in their Terms of Service that caused such a frenzy online earlier this week.

From the Wall Street Journal:

“Yielding to pressure from its users and privacy advocates, Facebook Inc. Tuesday night backed away from controversial changes to its terms of use that some had decried as giving the social network too much leeway with users’ personal information.

Just a day after standing by the revisions, the company said it would scrap the new policy and return to its previous terms of service in a notice to its 175 million users on its Web site.

“Over the past couple of days, we have received a lot of questions and comments about these updated terms and what they mean for people and their information,” read the statement, which Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg expanded upon in a blog post. “Because of the feedback we received, we have decided to return to our previous Terms of Use while we resolve the issues that people have raised.”

He added that the company would work on a “substantial revision” of the terms and give Facebook users a role in crafting it by voicing their opinions through a group on its Web site, “Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.”

The retreat comes after users and privacy professionals raised concerns about changes the company made to its terms of service a few weeks ago but that drew fresh attention from some blogs over the weekend. In particular, Facebook’s new policy said that its right to use and modify a users’ content did not automatically expire if the user removed the information from the site.

Privacy advocates expressed concern that the terms gave Facebook too broad a right over a users’ information, going beyond the terms established by other social media sites. Mr. Zuckerberg initially defended the changes in a blog post Monday, saying they were designed merely to clarify issues the old policy didn’t adequately address. In particular, Facebook wanted to reflect the fact that content users remove from the site continues to exist if they shared it with other Facebook members.

The outcry continued, as tens of thousands of members protested the moves by joining groups on Facebook. Mr. Zuckerberg announced the decision to revert to the old policy in a second blog post late Tuesday night. After consulting a range of “outside experts,” the company decided to re-establish the terms that existed before Feb. 4, he wrote.

Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal

This is the news of the day floating around on business and social media blogs.  Needless to say - it is very scary.   Soak it all in folks:

Apparently Facebook has made some sneaky changes to their Terms of Use  which basically says that anything you have uploaded, written etc. onto the site at any point in time - is theirs - AND they can do whatever they want with it - forever.

You used to be able to close your account with Facebook and that meant that your content was not theirs to use anymore, their license to use it ended.  No longer the case - they own the rights to everything now - whether you close your account or not.

Here is the old TOS:

“You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof.”

The above stays in tact BUT they have removed these two lines from their TOS:

“You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content.”

And Facebook has added the following to the Termination part near the end of the TOS:

“The following sections will survive any termination of your use of the Facebook Service: Prohibited Conduct, User Content, Your Privacy Practices, Gift Credits, Ownership; Proprietary Rights, Licenses, Submissions, User Disputes; Complaints, Indemnity, General Disclaimers, Limitation on Liability, Termination and Changes to the Facebook Service, Arbitration, Governing Law; Venue and Jurisdiction and Other.”

(TOS via Consumerist)

So - it boils down to Facebook users beware and be cautious of what you do out there in Facebook land.  Don’t write anything that you want to retain the rights to.  Don’t upload pictures that you want to retain legal rights to.  

Always good to take the time to read the Terms of Service for any website or program you sign up for.

UPDATE: The founder of Facebook - Mark Zuckerberg - has posted a response and clarification on the change in TOS (I’m guessing they were inundated with complaints and emails today) on the official Facebook Blog

Digging around even further - this was posted this afternoon at The Industry Standard. A Facebook representative emaile them the following response and clarifiction:

“We are not claiming and have never claimed ownership of material that users upload. The new Terms were clarified to be more consistent with the behavior of the site. That is, if you send a message to another user (or post to their wall, etc…), that content might not be removed by Facebook if you delete your account (but can be deleted by your friend). Furthermore, it is important to note that this license is made subject to the user’s privacy settings. So any limitations that a user puts on display of the relevant content (e.g. To specific friends) are respected by Facebook. Also, the license only allows us to use the info “in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof.” Users generally expect and understand this behavior as it has been a common practice for web services since the advent of webmail. For example, if you send a message to a friend on a webmail service, that service will not delete that message from your friend’s inbox if you delete your account.”

So - sounds like the main issue/solution is privacy settings that everyone needs to pay attention to.

I have seen, to my dismay, many women in business put themselves upon a pedestal and snub peers whom they consider to be of no use to their business. They feel that they are more of a true woman business owner than some other women, basing this all on the type of business the other women own and run. These women in business are making a huge mistake, in my opinion. Not only are they losing potential networking opportunities and a chance to learn valuable lessons, but they are also creating a bad reputation for themselves.

There are some women who feel that their business of choice is more important, or more of a real business than the business that another woman may have chosen. For example; if a woman has chosen a direct sales company to represent for her home based business or if a woman has chosen a business that may be a bit more blue-collar than other businesses, they are sometimes looked down upon by other women business owners. There are certain women in business who will want nothing to do with the woman involved in a business which is unrelated to their field, or a business model that that they don’t fully understand. This way of thinking has always perplexed me.

I have also noticed this business snobbery over the past few years amongst bloggers.  Some feel they have a “rock star” status as they have gained followers, recognition, publicity and have pumped up their self importance.  They feel since they have been blogging longer, that the newer bloggers are of no use to them. It can go as far as blogger cliques, pushing the newest participants of the blogging world to the side as opposed to welcoming them and realizing the potential of growth there could be.  How soon people forget that they too were once new at blogging or business in general.

While you may not share the exact goals or similar arenas in which to obtain those goals, there are certain “business basics” that everyone who runs a business needs. Customer service skills, tax information for a home-based business, balancing career and family life, and marketing resources are common needs for all businesses. Women need to work together for the common goal of success in their businesses. We all should want to share our insight, talents, lessons and ideas with not just a select group of women in business that we deem as suitable for us to network with. Expand your mind and realize that any woman in business has something that you may need and can learn from, to make YOU a better business owner.

If you are of the mindset that you should only associate with certain women in business, I urge you to reconsider your way of thinking. You may miss out on learning some of the most valuable skills in business from the women you may be tossing aside. Humility, people skills, and piggyback networking, among others, are all tools which can lead to your success.

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Cyndi Webb is the Founder and President of Moms Network - an organization dedicated to the promotion and success of Moms in business. Since 1997 she has promoted and worked with thousands of work at home moms in coaching and guiding them in how to help grow their businesses. Over the years Moms Network has evolved to include more than 15 websites offering free resources to moms from all walks of life, the Connecting @ Home print magazine and the annual Celebrating Moms Expo which attracts thousands of moms in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Cyndi makes her home in Minnesota with her husband and two children.