It is even more difficult in today's times with swipe cards, paypal, online banking.  Kids these days don't "see" the money that thay did in the past and a Yard Sale is a terrific way to visually, and tactically show kids the real value of money, and the exchange of goods for money in a hands on, fun and engaging manner that will build memories and hopefully a lot of fun!

A well planned and thought out yard sale can have many benefits beyond the stash of cash that you hope to gain from the sale. 

There are many skills your kids can learn from this event without the feeling of a classroom lesson or a "chore." Turn this in to a game for kids. Planning a yard sale is a great lesson in the value of money, and math skills. It can also teach marketing skills, how are you going to advertise, what are you going to advertise, be truthful and honest in your advertisements.  Saying you are have a Gigantic Yard Sale of the Year in the newspaper and then only having a handful of items is less than truthful. Other skills that can be taught and practiced through the kids games are project management skills, leadership, public speaking, and managing expectations.  Kids learning how to do safe online searches is an important skill parents need to teach their children as well. 

 One of the most important things you can do to get the kids excited about the yard sale is having a goal of what you plan to do with your earnings.  It might be a trip to a favorite amusement park, camping, or what ever your kids keep bugging you to do this summer. With the kids at the table, plan out all of the expenses of this "reward" from gas prices to food, hotel, etc. Don't forget include fun money for the kids to spend during this reward so that YOU are not expected to purchase very souvenier, or carnival game or funnel cake, that way they really learn to budget their earnings on what's most important.

Another idea for the earnings is a donation to a favorite charity, if this is your choice then contact that charity and ask them how much money it would take for one thing that the donations could go to.  If you choose a homeless shelter, ask how much it costs the shelter to house a person for one day or a week, or if it's a animal resucue foundation, ask them what the costs are to "sponsor" an animal or a kennel.  There are all kinds of local charities that you can work with in the preplanning stages of your yardsale to get an earnings goal.  

Decide on the final total that you have all agreed on your "Earnings Goal".

Let the Kids figure out a plan of all the steps required and the order they should be put in.

This is a great skill in school projects as well as life planning and budgeting, beyond the math skills they will use.

( a few tips I suggest is that if you having a two day sale – switch roles on the second day.  Don't give the math wizard the banking role, or the social butterfly as the sales person on the second day – let them get out of their comfort zones and learn to be happy in roles that are not their strong suit so that they can learn to be well rounded individuals. Also if you have a young infant see if you can get a sitter for the day so that you can really focus on the older kids for the day and include the cost of that sitter in the "cost of sales" portion of your budget") 

Once you and your kids have all brought out all the items you wish to sell, you can do some research on what those used items are going for in the market place.  Craigslist, Amazon, and E-Bay are great ways to find market value.  Google the item you have for sale and see what comes up, compare the condition of your item compared to what is on-line and then come up with a "hopeful" price that includes room for barganing and then an absolute minimum that you will accept for the item or if you or your kids really have no desire for the item anymore – know that it will go to a donation station at the end of the yard sale.  These minimum prices that you put down on paper for each item can then be used when going to the donation station for a reciept for your tax write off.

If you estimated earnings which should be about 50% of your "hopeful" price totals are not sufficient for your rewards expenses, you can do add on sales like selling coffee in the early morning and lemonade later on in the day, or a car wash on the final day, you would need to include the costs of the drinks, cups, car wash soap, etc.  in your cost of sales that you will deduct from your total earnings.

Other expenses you need to include are classified ad prices in the paper – often your local newspaper will have a "garage sale package" that includes signs and stickers. If you don't have that option you need price stickers (if you kids have their own individual reward goal then color coded stickers work great for the "banker" to keep track of whose items are sold.   You will also need poster board and yard stakes or a staple gun to hang signs and these costs need to be included as well. 

If your estimated and actual earnings are not enough to do the special reward the family wants to do you can offer to match their earnings or come up with other ideas for the fund raising.  Remember that the ultimate goal beyond all the lessons is to build memories and have fun with your kids this summer, this should not be a stressful event and all the pre-planning and the attached pdf should help keep that stress to a minimum.  Make sure you have set out your expectations for behavior for your kids, no whininng, no giving up and no dissappearing when it's time to clean up after ward.

"Perfection is not attainable but if we strive for it we can achieve excellence"  Vince Lombardi

One I have looked at very close, and joined, is Vemma!

It turns out a long time friend and mentor Jim Brogan, who has taught and coached my kids in basketball and life skills, is the one who introduced me to the product and I have been taking it for about 4 months now and I love it! My kids love it and my 18 year old son just signed up to become a distributor too!

Bottom line is if you are into health and want to make some money with a company that has BIG time names & organizations endorsing the product AND giving the product incredible credibility, which ultimately sells the prodcut for you. Vemma is a great company that is exploding and I believe they have what it takes to be another Billion dollar MLM. For more info please visit my site http://www.myvemma.com/cen.

Your comments are welcome. Have a fantastic day.

 FEATURES & BENEFITS OF THE SEND OUT CARDS SYSTEM

1. Easily send real cards and postcards in about a minute from any computer in the world with Internet connection. Add high-gloss finishes at no charge to cards and high-gloss is automatic with postcards.

2. No need to buy stamps, run to the office supply store to buy labels and ink to print addresses, no wasted time running to the store to pay $3-$5 for one card, no need to spend hours or dollars labeling and stamping campaign cards. No more hours or days of lost productivity while sending out a campaign.

3. Save time, energy, effort and money by using the system to easily send out 1 card or 1000 cards in a few minutes by creating a campaign piece once. After the creation of a customized card in minutes, it takes 10 seconds to send out to 1 or 1,000.

4. Create personalized, customized cards using your own photos and graphics – upload up to 30,000 images. Learn the entire system in about an hour – supported by training videos, online training, weekly team teleclasses, a Jump Start Kit and personal coaching.

5. SOC is a vehicle for the Law of Attraction. Appreciation wins out over self-promotion every single time. By sending out at least one unexpected card every day, you will put yourself in an attitude of gratitude and in a positive state of mind to acknowledge the positive impact others.

6. Grow your network and your net worth by growing your relationships that grow your business. Keep top-of-mind with customers, colleagues, friends and family by keeping connected, and putting their photos on your cards. You lose 10% of your influence for every month you don’t keep in contact with your database = 100% loss of influence in less than a year.

7. Import your current database into the system (from Outlook, ACT, Excel or other tab delimited type of file) – have a back-up database on the SOC server that is accessible anywhere.

8. Be a hero by remembering people’s birthdays. Never forget an important date – the reminder system emails you a week before a birthday or anniversary so you can send a timely card to most anywhere in the world – they calculate the postage for you. Use the anniversary feature for business partnerships. One of man’s greatest needs is the need to feel valued, loved, appreciated and honored – this system touches the hearts and heads of people on many levels and fills that need.

9. Send gift cards or checks inside a card for gifts from $5 – $50 with various vendors from American Express, Starbucks, Wal-mart, Home Depot, Blockbuster, The Gap, Bed Bath and Beyond, restaurants and more. Save time from driving to the different stores to buy gifts and  cards. Send your card in a box of gourmet coffees, teas, cookies, brownies, mixed nuts or caramels and earn commissions on gifts and cards being sent by yourself and your team.
 
10. Totally personalize your cards with your own handwriting font and 4 of your signatures. SOC scans in your personal handwriting and signatures of you or your family. You can even include your dog’s paw print for one of your signatures. Add more handwriting fonts and signatures as you wish.

11. Clone yourself – sort of. Your assistant can send cards for you in your handwriting with your signature.

12. SOC remembers your cards you sent. Each contact has an Action Log where you can see exactly what card and on what date you sent to that contact and what you wrote inside that card.

13. It’s a Cash Machine that doubles as a Marketing Machine and creates a new stream of income so you can earn income from something you’re likely already doing or know you should be doing. SOC is a business you can do after hours or any place with internet. It’s a business for those who are too busy to have another business.

14. Use the system as an incentive for staff members, volunteers, board members etc. – give them bonuses and commissions that don’t come out of your pocket.

15. No inventory, no storage space needed for the selection of 12,000 cards (and growing daily) high-quality 5” x 7” cards and 4”x 6” postcards.  Cards cost 62 – 93 cents and postcards cost 31- 62 cents with Wholesale and Entrepreneur packages. New 3-page tri-fold glossy brochure-type cards are only 1 additional point (31 cents) and cost the same postage as a regular card.

16. With the Entrepreneur Package, earn bonuses and commissions with 7 ways to earn passive income. Create a lucrative at-home business to help you acquire or keep a lifestyle of the “want to” life through duplication and passive income with very low start up money.

17. Use SOC as a unique marketing machine that is memorable and differentiates you from the crowd. 97% of our mail is bills or advertisements. Only 3% is personal, and people open their personal mail first. SOC uses handwriting fonts, first-class postage and no labels on their envelopes so your personalized cards get opened. Your contact info is printed on the back of the card, so if the envelope gets thrown away, your contact info remains.

18. Pay-it forward by using gift accounts, giving away a good thing will help you reap rewards faster because what we send out comes back to us many times over. Automated gift accounts allow others to send a card from your site to test the site, even when you’re not there.

19. Industry statistics show most people send an average of 10 cards per year, but have an opportunity to send at least 70 cards. Sending 90 cards in 90 days will make a big difference in your life and the lives of others. SOC motto – Changing the World One Card at a Time.

20. Very low entry investment for Entrepreneurs looking to start a new business. No inventory – everything is “just in time” and “print on demand”. SOC in Salt Lake City prints your card, stuffs the envelope, seals it, prints the address in a hand-written font directly onto the envelope (no labels), stamps it with a first class stamp, and drives it to the post office for you. All for about a buck per card that includes postage. You do the creative stuff – they do the grunt work.

If you would like to get a FREE 30 minutes of coaching about this home based buinsess please call us at 760-233-2863 and tell them you read the post on KidSafe.com and you would like more information on Send Out Cards home based business.

Claim Your free card at http://www.sendoutcards.com/gregwriter