Laura Sultan is the founder of Muslimah Speaks, a website featuring various Muslim women delivering information about Islam and the qur’an in various ways including lectures, naseeds poems and contemporary rap.

I wanted to speak with Laura to learn more about what inspired her to start the website. She was kind enough to grant me a phone interview, and I’d like to share our conversation:

Muslimahs Working at Home: What was your inspiration for creating Muslimah Speaks?

 Laura Sultan: Well, I first started investigating Islam in I guess 2005, 2006… I created this site at the beginning of this year [2012], so it’s fairly new. Being online all the time I did a lot of research online. I found sites like Halaltube.com and a few others with video lectures. But I found there [are] almost none with women speaking.

It took me literally years to find good resources for Muslim women. You know, I don’t mean just resources for Muslim women. I mean to really discover all of the Muslim women that are out there online. This was five, six years ago, but it was different then – you know; it’s kind of exploded with social media. But it was much harder to find.

I read a lot of books and learned a lot from the Internet, but I was still longing to hear what other women had to say about Islam. I had a lot of questions, and it really didn’t satisfy me to hear a man answer them. I really wanted to hear what other women had to say about it. That was the initial spark [that lead to] the website. I wanted to create a resource for women who are learning about Islam, or new reverts.

Now it’s kind of evolved to not just include lectures and interviews with scholars and popular public speakers, but to also include everyday Muslimahs – from all over the world – just giving their ideas, their opinions, and their art. We have a lot of spoken word poetry on the website and some videos that are talking about sports. I want to have a website that really shows the diversity of Muslim women. In American culture, there’s kind a single representation in the Western media of Muslim women.

I wanted to show that Muslim women are not all alike, first of all. We have very different beliefs. I don’t want to limit the site to ultra-conservative Muslims or, on the other end of the spectrum, more liberal or feminist Muslims. I want to show a full spectrum of Muslim women.

Muslimahs Working at Home: You’re actually leading into one of my other questions. Who is this website targeting? It looks like you’re trying to break open this box the American media has placed Muslim women into; and you’re trying to break it open and show we don’t fit inside that box. There are women in Islam that have different philosophies and different beliefs in Islam.

Laura Sultan: Different levels of education, different levels of commitment to their faith, different like, dislikes, interests…that sort of thing. Yes, as I said, The initial motivation for the website was to target people like me five years ago who were really searching for the Muslim women’s voice online. I’d been to many conferences where there’s not a single female speaker.

Muslimahs Working at Home: It’s funny that you say that – that really stood out.I actually have to credit you for introducing me to Yasmin Mogahed.

Laura Sultan: Yes, Yasmin Mogahed

Muslimahs Working at Home: I love her –  I listen to a lot of her lectures now. I saw you Tweet a link for her. I sent it to a good friend of mine who’s living in North Carolina right now – she’s Muslim, and she grew up Muslim. She’s been going through a really difficult time and she was so excited because she listens to lectures all the time. She said, “I can’t believe this sister is speaking on these topics!” and it’s a big deal getting this information from her.

Laura Sultan: It really does make a big difference. I’ve heard, or probably read – and I could not tell you where – conference organizers who say, “Yes, you tell you want more women on the panel, Muslim speakers, but there just aren’t any; and that’s not true – that is so far from being true, In fact, if you go to the website, women who speak from the qur’an and the Sunnah; people speaking who are scholars themselves – They are there  – it’s just no one knows who they are. There are women speaking locally, who have every bit as much expertise that the male speakers that speak at these conferences.

 There are a lot of Muslim women scholars out there that I am not putting on the site because they don’t speak English. Unfortunately, my husband speaks Urdu, but I do not, for example. I listen to each and every one of the videos posted on the website. I can only post what I’ve actually listened to. But also I also want to target primarily a Western audience, but specifically I want to reach those women who are not a part in close proximity to a vibrant, Muslim community.

I became Muslim in a town where there are no other Muslims. My experience with other Muslim women was very myopic. We went to one mosque generally with maybe 20 sisters on Friday for jummah prayer. The majority of those sisters did not speak English and I did not speak any other language. So it was very, very difficult for me to get to know these sisters and really talk to other sisters and become part of that community.  That’s not the case now, but it was five or six years ago when I was trying to learn and understand, what does it means now that I have taken shahadah and I am a Muslim woman?

Muslimahs Working at Home: That has to be difficult.

Laura Sultan: It’s such an identity crisis – it’s an identity crisis for any revert, but it’s a real identity crisis if you do not have any Muslim sisters around.

Muslimahs Working at Home: Yes, I agree.

Laura Sultan: Yeah, I really hope the website is a resource for those sisters in the West that don’t have access to a Muslim community.

Muslimahs Working at Home: It’s really needed, and I agree with you about the myopic view of Muslim women. I grew up in a town I think had quite a few Muslims, but they weren’t seen. I’ve moved back and I do see a sister wearing hijab every so often, but it’s rare unless I’m at the masjid. I was just telling my husband that when I go out, brothers and sisters will give me the greetings because they see me covered even though they’re not. Some are, but this is a different town – I moved from Atlanta where I’ve seen sisters going around wearing niqab even. It’s funny to come back here and see it. Ironically one of my best friends in high school was Muslim, but I didn’t know what that meant because I had no experience with Islam back then.

I remember once going to her house and seeing the qur’an on the stand and asking “What kind of bible is this?” She laughed and said, “That’s not a bible, that’s the qur’an!”  It’s just so funny in hindsight. They weren’t really practicing. There was nothing other than seeing the book there, I knew nothing of it [Islam] until I moved and was exposed to it.

I do think it’s important, because especially post 911, there are a lot of people who are curious because it’s constantly in the news and some people want to  know about it – especially Muslim women because we’re seen as so much of a “mystery” I guess.

Laura Sultan: Right. That’s not my primary audience for the website, but I do hope it can act as a vehicle for dawah, insha’Allah.

Muslimahs Working at Home: Insha’Allah, insha’Allah.

Laura Sultan: I want to dispel a lot of the myths.

Muslimahs Working at Home: Now, I’m curious – how did you choose the mediums through which you share the information? You have qur’an recitation, you have video lectures, you have poetry, naseed and some blogs – how did you choose those channels for providing the information?

Laura Sultan: Well, initially I was thinking lectures and interviews – you know very scholarly, and I still want it to be predominantly scholarly with the videos; but I also wanted to have the qu’ran recitation on there. We listen to a lot of qur’an recitation in our home. There are very few videos of women reciting qur’an. I know why, but it’s still very frustrating because it’s so difficult to find.

I looked at the videos that were out there before starting the site. I searched and I search, wrote down names, bookmarked videos, and these categories just fell into place based on what was out there. At first I didn’t have the rap and the blog categories, but as I started discovering more and more of what was out there, I just felt like I really had to add them. I mean there are a lot of blogs out there.  There are a lot of women that have some very important things to say. Some not so important…everything else just falls under miscellaneous.

Going back to the website – I was talking about the qur’an recitation… if you don’t hear a women reciting the qur’an and you’re new to Islam, you can develop this mistaken assumption that it’s only men who recite the qu’ran. That it’s just a male role in Islam. As I learned more and more about Islam over the years, I know that’s ridiculous; but if your only access is primarily through the Internet, you could [arrive at] that assumption very easily.

Muslimahs Working at Home: Yes, yes – there’s so much information out there. Like you said you could easily get hold of some very one dimensional information and run with that.

Laura Sultan: Yes.

Muslimahs Working at Home: I like that you have these different areas where people can get information. I think it’s very timely, and that it appeals more to people today to click on a link to see different blogs or listen to some spoken word.

Laura Sultan:  Yeah, I’m a big fan of spoken word poetry.

Muslimahs Working at Home: Me too!

Laura Sultan: The first one I came across was from Amal Ahmed Albaz, and I was floored. I told my daughter who is an aspiring writer herself, “Come here, come here! I want you to listen to this!” I wanted to inspire her with the poetry. And then I discovered there are a lot of Muslim women who do poetry, and they’re just amazing.

Muslimahs Working at Home: Yes, there are, there’s so much talent out there that it just blows your mind!

Laura Sultan: I’ve come across some comedians – just a lot of amazing women out there. Not just speakers. You know, knowledge is disseminated in so many different ways. I’ve thought about adding articles and guest posts, but right now I don’t want to dilute the brand. It may expand at some point or spin off to another website, but there are other websites out there like that.

Muslimahs Working at Home: For right now, I can see why you’d keep it that way for now. They can get what they need – It’s information that’s easy to take in, easy to digest. You can always add more down the line if you want to.

So, your tag line, which I really like, is: “Amplifying the Muslim Woman’s Voice.”  I see one of the topics listed is “Islamic feminism”. That’s always kind of a touchy topic in the communities I’ve been a part of – even online. Some women feel like Islamic feminism needs to be really discussed and fought for, and some feel it’s not necessary because Islam has given women these rights. Although you could go back and say though that there are Muslim women who are not being given their rights. What do you think about that?

Laura Sultan: To give you my take on it I’d have to give you a bit of my back story – pre-conversion. I was a big time, Western-style feminist in college. I had women’s studies minor and took all these classes – one of the classes I took was feminist theory, so I was a hardcore feminist which is why it took me years and years and years to learn anything about Islam; because I believed what the media was saying about Muslim women – the stereotype about Muslim women being oppressed and all that. So it was the biggest shock to me to learn what rights Muslim women were given over 1400 years ago.

So to go back to Islamic feminism – it is different than Western-style feminism. There’s a branch of Western-style feminism that would probably not have a problem with Islamic feminism, but not all of them. But Islamic Feminism is not saying women have to be like men to have value. Where western feminism is more along those lines – women have to try as hard as possible to emulate men and  have an attitude like “anything a man has I want it. Anything a woman has, I don’t want it.” Any rights naturally given to women are somewhat denigrated.

I know the label “feminism” causes heart palpitations in some people. I personally have no trouble reconciling feminism with the rights women are given in the qur’an, but the fact of the matter is it all depends on how you define feminism. There are probably a hundred different ways. The argument about feminism in Islam generally comes down to your [own] definition of feminism.

As far as this website is concerned, I’ve got some topics that are womens rights, treatment of women, women in Islam, women in public – not all of the topics that fall under women’s rights fall under Islamic feminism. Because I think that almost all, or the majority of Muslim women, would agree that Islam gives women tons of rights. But not all would say Islam is a feminist religion.

So there’s a distinction. The truth of the matter is, as I’ve said before, it depends on how you defining feminism. When I’m talking to other Muslims, I could be saying the exact same thing to two different people; but if I say feminist to one person and don’t say feminist to the other person, they may react completely differently. It’s one of those words that you have to be careful how you use it depending on who you’re talking to.

Muslimahs Working at Home: Yes.

Laura Sultan: Did that make sense?

Muslimahs Working at Home: Yes, it makes perfect sense, because I’ve experienced it. I’ve seen some pretty heated debates go back and forth over that word.

Laura Sultan: Yeah, kind of need to take the temperature [laughs].

Muslimahs Working at Home: Yes, It can really get heated; so yeah it depends on their interpretation of that word, and I guess sometimes it depends on the way they’re practicing too – it depends on a lot of different things really.

Laura Sultan: As far as [whether] we need Islamic feminism, or whether it’s necessary- I look at to see how change has occurred in society. There are definitely cultures – even Muslims in the U.S. who do not accept or acknowledge the rights women were given in the qur’an. They downplay or completely ignore the parts of the qur’an that do give women rights.

So yes, there is a need for feminism. Is there a need for an extreme within feminism?  Sometimes I feel in order for things to come where they need to be, sometime we need to go to the other extreme – sort of like a pendulum. I may not agree with what some of the extreme Islamic feminists do, but coming from a historical, sociological point of view, it’s almost necessary to go beyond where we need to be to find that balance – that middle ground. Even though I may not agree with what some people are doing, I do understand the need for it from a sociological perspective.

Muslimahs Working at Home: What you’ve [just] said about Islamic feminism lead to this next question – Have you had anyone respond to your website in any way that was negative? I’ve noticed you try to as you mention earlier, you try to provide a good variety of Islam. Have you had anyone say anything about you posting information about someone who’s more “progressive?”  Have there been any issues or has it been well-received?

Laura Sultan: So far I have not had one negative comment. I expected it, so I’ve been very surprised. The opinions of the women in the videos are not always the same as mine. I struggle sometimes with some of the videos – of whether or not to put them on there, I feel like I need to take my own beliefs out of it and provide a full spectrum. Now there are certain things I will not post – if it’s full of hatred against a certain culture people or country, I won’t put it up. I do have a line – that’s why I watch all videos before posting.

Muslimahs Working at Home: Have you thought about how you want the site to evolve or are you just letting it organically “happen”?

Laura Sultan: I’ve thought about guest posts and articles, but for now I think I’ll just let it happen. I do want to add good quality content –specifically video with women scholars. Unfortunately, it’s just really hard to find right now.

We are always hearing everyone else talking about Muslim women – You have the media talking about what Muslim women are like, and Muslim men talking about what Muslim women are like. It’s really time for the Muslim woman’s voice to come to the forefront, when it’s about Muslim women.

This week practically flew by, masha’Allah! Recently some unexpected real life occurances threw me a bit off schedule which unfortunately prevented me from posting the details of my Interview with Muslimah Speaks founder, Laura Sultan on Monday, May 7. Insha’Allah I will post it on Monday May 14.

So much is going on right now that my head is practically spinning! The kids are almost out of school for summer break so we’ve been busy attending and volunteering to help out with end-of-the-year functions with the school and the masjid where they also attend Sunday school, masha’Allah. I still haven’t signed them up for a summer program (procrastination on my end). There’s still time, but not much…

We are also looking for a place to live that’s closer to my mother, the kid’s school and the masjid. I think we’ve found the perfect home for our family – enough space, in the right location, space for my office and room for my mother-in-law, insha’Allah. If Allah wills, we will get it and be able to start packing as soon as the kids are out of school. Please keep us in your dua.

Business is very good right now, masha’Allah. I’ve been hard at work juggling several client projects and a couple projects  for my resume writing business and Muslimah Working at Home. I’m hoping to offer a free webinar before Ramadhan, insha’Allah. You get to decide the topic – I’ll be posting a brief survey here on the blog and the Muslimah Biz Tips newsletter, Facebook, Twitter, etc. – and your answers will determine the webinar topic to be discussed. It’s really important that I’m giving you the information you want, need and can actually use to reach your work-at-home goals, insha’Allah. A lot depends on how quickly we get the family moved an settled since I will also continue working on client projects throughout that process as well.

As always I greatly appreciate your kind comments, feedback and support. May Allah keep us on The Straight Path, and bless all of our endeavors.

I recently purchased a domain name for a new blog I’m thinking of starting. Considering how full my plate is these days, I need to start a new blog like I need a hole in my head; But I really couldn’t resist. This blog will be personal –it will be about my experience moving back to my hometown to care for my mother (handling her heath care, financial affairs, housekeeping/maintenance, etc.) as an only child, masha’Allah.

There’s actually a term that refers to those of us who are caring for an elder parent or family member while raising young children – the “sandwich generation.” Technically I’m too young to be a part of this generation, but it describes my situation very accurately nonetheless. Allah knows best, and so this is the role he has decreed for me to fulfill and I am more than willing to do so. My family is learning a lot about patience, compassion and love through this experience. Insha’Allah I’ll reveal the site to you once it’s up and running – that probably won’t be until Fall because I’m up to my eyeballs in personal and work projects right now.

If you’ve been thinking of setting up a blog for profit, or a website for your business, don’t underestimate the importance of choosing the right domain name.  The right domain name can draw people to your site. Here are a few tips to consider:

1. Choose a Domain Name That Ends with “.com”

Yes, these tend to be the most expensive domain names available, but there’s a good reason for that: most people automatically assume that business domain names end with “.com”. Sure, you can set up your blog or website domain name to end with “.net”, “.biz”, “.info” or another extension besides “.com”, but you will probably have to put more effort into marketing and branding to build recognition and credibility because most people consider a “.com” to be the standard in domain name urls – especially for businesses and blogs.

2. Make Sure Your Domain Name Describes What Your Site is About

Don’t try to be too clever because it could backfire. The best domain names tell visitors what the site is about before they even visit it. Don’t keep your visitors guessing – let them know upfront what to expect when they arrive on your home page.

You also want to be careful about creating a domain name that’s too long. Most online experts recommend keeping the url between 8 and 15 characters. Anything longer may be more difficult to remember.

3. Do Keyword Research First

You want your site to be indexed and rank well in major search engines like Google , Yahoo! And Bing, right? Take time to do some research to find a keyword-rich domain name that others are using to find similar information. This is a very simple SEO tactic, and you’ll get better results by utilizing other seo-related strategies to boost your site’s search engine rank; but it’s a very good place to start.

Don’t make a hasty decision when buying your domain name. Think strategically to get the best results in the long run.

My children are getting older, so I dream about once again having an office space. I have three loud boys, and rather than tell them, “Be quiet!” throughout the day, it would be nice to have a quiet room where I can simply close the door when I need to. Ah well, a girl can dream…

This afternoon I had a wonderful phone interview with Laura Sultan, founder of Muslimah Speaks. We had a really good conversation about her website and what inspired her to start it. If you don’t know about this website, do yourself a favor and go there now. It’s such an empowering website for and about Muslim women.

How is your week going so far? Let us know what you’re up to.

Today was Take Your Child to Work Day at the children’s school. I’d planned to participate this year, but since my daughter has missed so many days of school because of illness, I regretfully decided against it. Instead I rescheduled it for this Saturday. We’ll spend half the day discussing entrepreneurship and how it can be a viable option for earning a living.

Why Isn’t Entrepreneurship Covered In Schools?

This is what I missed as a kid. Entrepreneurship wasn’t discussed in my school. We were essentially educated in order to put our smarts to work for someone else. I never questioned it. My father worked for the same company for over 30 years. My mother was a teacher for over 25 years. It was expected that I would some day grow up, get good grades throughout school, earn a Bachelor’s degree (at least) and convince some nice, stable company to hire me. What my parents and I couldn’t foresee is how the type of job security they enjoyed would eventually become a rarity, if not non-existent, by the time I entered the job market.

Two months after graduating college, I was hired by a major newspaper publication and immediately relocated to a new city. It was a good experience for me, masha’Allah – especially since I didn’t leave home to attend college. It was my very first “white collar” job. Up until that point I’d mainly worked retail jobs because they offered the flexibility of scheduling around my full-time school schedule. Having weekends and holidays like Memorial Day and Labor day off was a novelty I’d long been denied.

Chasing Job Security

About nine months into my new job, I realized the corporate environment wasn’t for me. I finally achieved the secure job I’d been taught to work for, but I was miserable. I found the office politics, gossip and micro-management exhausting. I’d started meeting people who were self-employed and the idea of working for myself appealed to me, but I had no idea how to get started or even what to do. I didn’t feel confident enough in my ability to earn a stable paycheck so I continued on with the newspaper for seven more years. It’s amazing how quickly time passes…

Fast forward to today, and I’m happily self-employed, alhamdullilah. My husband and children appreciate my ability to be with them when needed while earning a living. It involves A LOT of hard work. It can be unpredictable sometimes, but it’s a lifestyle that suits me best. There’s a real sense of accomplishment in being able to provide a quality product or service others need, and make your own living doing it. An added benefit is being able to provide a job for someone else through your business (something I aspired to, insha’Allah). About three years after I left the paper, the economy began to collapse. That along with the Internet caused newspapers everywhere to struggle. A string of layoffs at my old job eventually lead to the elimination of my old department.

Providing Children With Choices

My children are young, but I want my them to start thinking about their futures. They need to know their options. If one of my children wants to pursue a career as an employee, then alhamdullilah. If they choose to work for themselves, I’ll support that as well. As long as it’s halal and they’re happy, I’ll be ecstatic.
Is entrepreneurship something you would encourage your child to consider?

How many articles or blog posts do you write each month? If you’re like many home business owners and online marketers the answer may be “dozens.” Of course you might write more than that too. It can be a lot of work, energy and time to write all of that content. Are you making every article count?

1. Social Networking. Make sure to link to each new article or blog post, regardless of where you publish it, from your chosen social networking sites. Link to it from Facebook, Twitter, and consider adding it to social bookmarking sites like Digg too.

2. Email marketing. Create teasers for the content you’ve published online and send email messages with those teasers to your opt-in list. It’ll send traffic to your website and help keep you in front of your prospects. A weekly wrap up is a great way to highlight your new content, connect with your prospects and motivate sales.

3. Rewrite. Rewrite your articles and blog posts. You can use them for article marketing purposes. You can also send them to your email list. This is particularly effective if you rewrite articles for article marketing purposes and send them to your email list. You’re not at risk for duplicate content and you’re providing information to your prospects.

4. Repurpose. Use your articles and blog posts to create reports, ebooks and information products. There’s a small caveat here. You probably don’t want to charge for this content unless it provides significantly more value to readers than the free content you’ve already published.

For example, you can collect ten to twenty articles on a common topic and create a free report from them. You’ll need to add transitions, an introduction and enough new unique content to make it valuable. It’s a great way to provide information to your prospects. You can also monetize the report with affiliate links.

5. Snippets. Pull snippets from your existing articles and blog posts and share them online. Post helpful tips on Twitter and/or Facebook. You can hire a Virtual Assistant to publish five to ten snippets a day. Provide value without creating new content.
It’s important to know that you can also use existing reports and ebooks you’ve written to create articles and blog posts. Simply reverse the process and extract content from the report to create a blog post. Personalize it and you’ve provided value, new content and search engine fuel.
With each piece of content you create, create a plan to maximize it. Rewrite it. Repurpose it. Reuse it in a different format. Create a plan to make every article count and you’ll build a comprehensive and extremely effective content marketing strategy.

Yesterday’s post, 10 Ways to Generate Cash Fast, got me thinking about some of the emails I receive from women looking for guidance in their quest to work at home. Some are employed outside of the home, and others are stay at home moms or retirees. Making the transition to working at home can be tricky – especially if your income is needed to help cover household expenses. You need a plan.

I say this reluctantly, because some people will get caught up and the planning phase and never take the next steps necessary to meet their goal. As with getting married, having children, and pretty much any other monumental decision you’ll make in life, things are never absolutely perfect when you take that leap. Don’t put that kind of pressure on yourself. I’m living proof that it is possible to earn a living working at home. There have even been times when I was the only breadwinner in our home. Trust me – if you want this, you can do it.

The Goal of Working at Home Is Attainable

Our lifestyle is comfortable, masha’Allah, but not extravagant. I’m not rich. We have what we need, I’m able to cover our bills, other expenses and stay home to help care for my growing family, alhmadullilah. We’re slowly building our savings and working toward becoming completely debt-free within the next five years, insha’Allah. No disrespect to sisters who prefer working outside of the home. I did so for 10-plus years and it was a good experience. I like being self-employed much better, but that’s just me; I know that an entrepreneurial lifestyle isn’t for everyone.

What’s Your Bottom Line?

Since May 2010, when I published the very first Muslimahs Working at Home blog post, I’ve had numerous sisters contact me via email asking how they can make the switch to earning a living from their homes. While several factors come into play before reaching your targeted destination, I do believe there is one important question that needs to be answered if you’re really serious about working at home: exactly how much can your family live on each month? Can you afford to work at home?

For the sake of this post, I’ll assume you don’t have 12 -18 months of income saved as a financial cushion while you make the transition to working at home and stabilize your income. This is how much many experts recommend having set aside, but for most of us having this much in savings is just not reality. Most of us are just trying to keep our heads above water in this struggling economy.

Itemize Expenses

Those without the previously mentioned financial safety net may have to take a different decidedly more drastic approach. First, figure out what your bottom line is, meaning how much money your family needs each month. Think about where you live, your monthly expenses (e.g. rent/mortgage, car payment, insurance, utilities, food, gas/transportation, etc.)and crunch the numbers. Be sure to list EVERY expense that you are required to cover each month.

Once you list your monthly expenses, figure out which expenses you can reduce. Utilities, food and insurance are examples of expenses that can be reduced with some effort. Do you eat out? Do you drive to places where you could walk or bike instead? Can you downsize to a smaller living space? Trade in for a smaller, used car or use public transportation exclusively? Consider all the things you can do that will bring you closer to your goal of working from home. Yes, there may be quite a bit of sacrifice in the beginning, but if you’re really serious about being able to work at home, you do what’s needed. Besides, many of the sacrifices you make now will more than likely be temporary as you get on your feet.

Transitioning Toward Working at Home

If you need stable, guaranteed income while you get started, consider a part-time job or working with a temp agency. This can generate some income as you get started. You’ll need to assess your personal circumstances to decide whether or not this will work for you and your family.

Once you know how much you and your family can afford to live on each month, it will make creating a financial plan for transitioning to working at home easier. There are many resources you can use to help you reduce your living expenses. Here are a few I recommend:

Twightwad Central
Dollar Stretcher
Living On a Dime
Miserly Moms
Make It from Scratch
Savvy Frugality
Frugal Blog

A few days ago, a sister contacted me for advice. She’s not working. Her husband just lost his job. They have small children and they need to figure out how to start earning money right away. Been there, done that, suban’Allah…

The problem with running your own business is that it can take a while to build a steady stream of income and become profitable. The problem with finding a company that hires people to work from home, it that the hiring process is often quite slow; and once you’re hired it can take some time before you receive that first pay check. So what can you do in the meantime if you find yourself in a financially desperate situation and need to generate quick cash? Here are a few suggestions that may help:

• Have a yard sale
• Sell gently used clothing, purses and other accessories to consignment shops
• Sell items on ebay
• Sell items on Craigs List
• Sell services as a graphic designer/writer/virtual assistant and advertise on Craigs List, Backpage and around community
• Write an ebook (about something you know very well) and sell it
• Babysit
• Take online surveys 
• Clean houses (advertise in local Craigs List, Backpage and around community)

Some of these tips are obviously not long-term solutions, but insha’Allah they can keep you afloat until you can get back on your feet. Do you have additional suggestions for making money quickly in a pinch?

Did you know a  newsletter can increase your business by as much as 5 fold – Or more – if done right? In fact, I consider a newsletter as one of the most crucial tools in business, yet many business start-ups miss out on it. Why is a newsletter so crucial and how can you start your own newsletter? Here’s the inside scoop:

Why a Newsletter is So Important

A newsletter is crucial because most people aren’t willing to pull out their credit card the first time they hear about someone.
Instead, they prefer to get to know you and your content bit by bit over time. As they get to know you and realize you’re the real deal and that you can help them, then that’s when they’ll be willing to pull out their credit cards and make a purchase.
To build this trust, you need to build a connection over time. A newsletter allows you to stay in touch with people even after they’ve left your site.
Getting Started With a Newsletter
The first step is to get an autoresponder service. There are many services, such as Aweber, GetResponse or iContact to choose from. If you have a shopping card system, that may have a built in autoresponder as well.
Once you have your autoresponder setup, the next step is to get people to sign up for your newsletter.
The best way to do that is to have your newsletter on the front page of your website. Clearly tell your readers what they’ll get by signing up to your newsletter. Then ask them firmly and powerfully to join your newsletter.

Consistency

It’s important that you have a set consistency at which you send your emails. In general, anywhere from once a week to once a month is a good consistency.

If you send your emails more than once a week, people may start to think its spam. If you send your emails less than once a month, people will forget about you.

Once you pick a consistency, stick with it so that people know what to expect from your website.

Building a Relationship

A lot of newsletter writers spend a lot of time on their headline. Because, that’s what gets emails opened after all. Right?

Wrong. Your real headline is in the “from” column. People look at who the email is from more than the subject when they’re deciding whether or not to open an email.

Your goal is to build a relationship with your readers, so that they know when they get an email from you that they’re in for a treat. It’s going to be interesting, informative and useful. You’re not going to spam them.

If you build a relationship with them like that, then your emails will get opened – Almost every time.

Again, having a good newsletter can increase your business by many fold. Start by creating your autoresponder and getting signups. Then, pick a mailing consistency and start to build a relationship of trust with your readers.

Jummah Mubarak everyone! It’s been a busy week behind the scenes here at Muslimahs Working at Home. I’m working on a number of things including :

• The return of Saturday’s Muslimahs Business Spotlight. I’ve REALLY missed this! I love profiling Muslimah-owned businesses. They can be a great source of inspiration for someone who is trying to achieve the goal of entrepreneurship. Contact me if you’d like to have your business profiled.
• Tips for Marketing Your Home-Based Business (without going broke). An essential guide for anyone interested in attracting more customers and generating more sales.
• More information about where to find work-at-home jobs. Lots of sisters have contacted me asking for advice on finding companies that hire home-based workers. They just want a legitimate way to earn money from home. Although I focus mainly on starting a home-based business, I want to support ALL women looking to earn a living at home, insha’Allah. Soon you’ll notice more information available about work-at-home companies.

If you have a question you’d like me to elaborate on here at Muslimahs Working at Home, please contact me anytime. If you have a question about a certain topic, chances are someone else has the same question and we can share information to help everyone, masha’Allah.

I also welcome you to feel free to comment on any of the blog posts in this site. It’s a wonderful way to start a conversation. I know you’re reading because I receive emails from sisters each week. I’m very greatful for your interest and support.

Last, but not least, check out my most recent article over at American Muslim Mom, 7 Tips for Building and Working your LinkedIn Network. I’ve found LinkedIn to be a very valuable networking and marketing tool for my businesses. Insha’Allah you’ll find these tips useful in your own business.