Julianne Wish
Getting started working from home may involve a lot of preparation or very little, depending on what you already have and how far you’ve already gone with your work at home plans. The following is a basic checklist to help you get started.
Computer
Of course, you’ll need a computer. But, you knew that, right? Nonetheless, it’s not necessarily enough just to have any old computer. For working from home, you will need a computer that can be your daily work horse – it needs to be up to date, have plenty of memory, and functional USB ports. If you know others who work from home, ask them what computer they use, and why. Also, ask them if they would choose a different computer if they had to do it over again.
Laptop or Desktop?
While you are considering what computer will best serve your purposes, you will probably need to decide between a laptop and a desktop. Most sources recommend both – using your desktop for daily tasks (desktops usually have more memory) and your laptop for certain projects and for back-up.
The ideal situation is a desktop and router, and a laptop with a wireless card. The wireless card plugs into your laptop’s USB port, picking up a signal from the router and allowing you to connect to the internet using your laptop. Then, you can do the bulk of your work on the desktop and grab the laptop when you need to finish something up or work on a project somewhere else in the house.
Broadband Internet Connection
It’s pretty much impossible to work from home effectively without a broadband or high-speed internet connection. Dial-up takes far too long and will greatly inhibit your business capabilities. So sign up with the internet service provider (ISP) of your choice and get set up for high speed internet.
Family and Childcare
Many people choose to work from home in order to be near their children. However, childcare is necessary during your work hours. This can be a dilemma – making enough money to pay for childcare right off the bat is challenging. Try relatives first – grandparents, aunts and so forth may be willing to watch your children for a few hours a week each, and for free.
Then you can check into mother’s helpers; these are childcare providers who come into your home and take care of your children while you are there. Mother’s helpers are much less expensive than conventional babysitters, because you are on the premises and the helper is using your home.
Babysitters who will watch your child in their home are more expensive. If your children are in school, you can arrange your work hours around their school hours.
Workspace
While this goes on your checklist, it’s highly individualized. Some people are happy with a workspace in the corner of their kitchen; others prefer an entire room dedicated to being the home office. The important thing is to have some kind of area set aside for you to work in. This helps you get in ‘work mode’ more quickly since you will associate your surroundings with working, and it also sends a signal to other family members that you are working when you are in that area.
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.
Julianne Wish, Member Contributions
Like any job environment, working from home requires a certain type of individual. There are skills and characteristics of the home employee that may or may not fit your style. So if you are considering working from home, you might want to ask yourself if it’s right for you. Here are some things to consider.
The Work Day
Do you value the time when the work day is over and you can go home and do what you please? If this is a valuable aspect of your outside-the-home job, then think carefully if you want to work from home. Setting your own hours sounds wonderful, but it is not as easy as it sounds. You don’t go home from your home office!
Computer Knowledge
If you are going to work from home, you’ll need a working knowledge of computers. You don’t have to a software designer, but knowledge of the basics is important. It’s also a good idea to have resources you can turn to, such as technically savvy friends.
There’s no IT department to turn to in the home office, and computers require maintenance and updates. If you have trouble downloading software, or if your machine freezes up, you will need to have some knowledge at your disposal to fix the problem. Also, you are undoubtedly using an internet connection to work from home; find out if a back-up plan is feasible for you in case you can’t get online.
Task Orientation
Some people are more task oriented than others – that is, some people find great satisfaction in making a list and getting everything on it done. Others find staying on task difficult, and may get distracted easily with other interests and ideas. You don’t have to be naturally task-oriented to succeed at working from home; but you do need to be honest with yourself about your abilities in this regard and plan accordingly.
Motivation
Remaining self-motivated can be challenging for some. Again, you can’t rewire your brain to be the personality type you need to succeed; but understanding your limitations and strengths regarding motivation can help you put safeguards in place before you begin.
For example, if you have trouble staying motivated, you can ask a friend to hold you accountable periodically. He or she can check up on you weekly with an email or phone call, asking you if your’re on task and if you’ve reached your goals.
Perks
If you already have a day job, carefully consider the perks that job offers and decide what you will do about providing those yourself. Health insurance and taxes, for instance, are often things an employer takes care of behind the scenes. You’ll want to look into those things on your own before starting out in the work at home world.
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.
![Ideas for a Dwindling Budget]()
Julianne Wish, Member Contributions
With the current state of the economy and many people getting laid off from their job or getting hours cut, budgets for many are getting tighter and tighter. Even if the current economic crisis hasn’t much affected you personally, you may still be taking proactive measures to be more frugal. You may be wondering how you can start saving some money in various ways that will allow you to free up some space in your budget. Believe it or not there are a variety of do it yourself ideas that you can easily incorporate into your life that don’t cost much at all. Here are some great ideas to try out that will help your budget and free up some money for you.
Learn to Sew your Own Clothes
One excellent do-it-yourself idea that can be a huge help if you have a tight budget is learning to sew your own clothes. Purchasing new clothes is not cheap these days. This is especially true if you have children, who need new wardrobes nearly every year. However, if you learn to sew, you can make clothing yourself and save big time. Even if you have to take a sewing class, it will be well worth it if you are able to sew your own clothes and some clothes for your family. If fabric costs are a concern you can always design new clothes using thrift store finds. For example, you can buy a couple cheap tank tops at a thrift store and sew a twirly fabric skirt onto them, creating low cost sun dresses. If you need new clothes and you don’t know how to fit it in your budget, consider sewing and you may be able to save some money.
Grow Some of Your Own Food
Groceries are getting more and more expensive as well. It’s so difficult when you go to the store and you find that simple food items have doubled in price. Shopping for groceries really costs quite a bit of money, but there is something that you can do to save. Growing your own food can help you to save on your grocery bill. Planting some food in a garden or in a container garden is not expensive at all. You can easily purchase seeds or even plants that have already been started. Start growing them and you’ll soon have some produce of your own. Lettuce, tomatoes, and strawberries are all easy crops to start with. This can provide some nice savings on your weekly shopping bill.
Do More Cooking Yourself
Another simple thing that you can do yourself that will make some room in your budget is to do more of the cooking yourself. If you aren’t a great cook, you can learn. You can read articles and easily get recipes online. Ask friends to share their favorite, simple to make, meal recipes. Instead of spending so much money eating out or spending a lot on pre-made foods at the grocery store, you’ll find that it is a whole lot cheaper for you to buy raw ingredients and make the meals yourself. Not only will it save you quite a bit of money, but you’ll be eating healthier meals as well.
Make Use of Used Objects
Making use of used objects in your home can be helpful. Get creative with making things yourself. Do you have an old pair of jeans lying around your home? If so, use your sewing skills to cut them off and make shorts. Do you need a new handbag? Simply cutting the legs off a pair of old jeans and using the top of the jeans can be used to make a cool handbag that looks like a designer bag. A tin can will look good as a pencil holder or planter. A glass pop bottle can be a flower vase. Look around your home and find things you don’t use. Figure out how you can use them for another use to save some money.
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.
Julianne Wish, Member Contributions
Many of us self-employed parents who blog dream of earning money from our blogs. There are many stories of bloggers earning the “big bucks” and we would like to be one of those ‘stories’. You can earn money by blogging, if you are dedicated to doing so.
According to Technorati, the average American blogger earns $6,000 per year. The top 1% earn $200,000 or more.
Blogging requires long hours and a lot of work. Make sure you pick a subject you are passionate about. For me, it’s all about helping parents work from home so they can be home with their children. Find a subject that ‘ignites your fire within’. You are less likely to get burned out and more likely to stick with it if you do.
If you pick a topic like celebrity gossip, politics, photography or gadgets, the competition is fierce and it will be difficult to get yourself established. Select something else and remember…make sure you are passionate about it.
If you want to earn money from your blog there are several ‘musts’:
- your blog must be well-written
- your blog must not contain any spelling error
- your blog must not contain any grammatical errors
Here are some of the best ways to earn money from your blog.
- Advertising. The most obvious way to make money from your blog is with advertising. Advertisers pay a few cents when an ad is clicked. They may pay a certain rate per 1,000 page views. The most popular advertising program is Google AdSense. It places ads within context of your blog on your site. Regardless of the traffic level on your site, you can register for Google AdSense. There are other advertising methods, such as BidVertiser, AdBrite and AdGenta. If you are well know and have a large readership, you can contact advertisers on your own. To make money from ads on your site, you need thousands of visitors each month.
- Affiliate programs. Affiliate programs are similar to advertising. You can place a button/banner ad or text ad on your site. You can also place hyperlinks within your posts. For affiliate links to pay, the person who clicks on them usually has to make a purchase…you then get a percentage of that purchase.
- Pay-per-post. Some companies will pay you to write about their products or services. You will need some blogging time under your belt before you can get involved in pay-per-post programs. Be cautious, though. Your readers are reading your blog because they are interested in what you have to say. If you are getting paid to write about a product, be sure you tell your readers that. Full disclosure is important and your readers will respect that.
- Sponsorship. You may be able to get a corporate sponsor. However, your site will then carry only the sponsor’s branding and there will be less of your own ‘personality’ coming through.
- Employment. Many businesses have their own blogs. They use the blogs to stay in touch with their customers. You may find work by being a paid blogger for a company. This takes a lot of dedication. You have to show companies that you are worth hiring. This means you have to be well established and have posts with no errors. If you are really well known, businesses may come looking for you. More than likely, you will have to seek them out. Remember to treat this like any other job interview.
There are many ways you can earn money by blogging. It does take considerable time and dedication. Most bloggers earn a little bit to supplement their main source of income. If make a lot of money by blogging is your goal, dedicate yourself to the process and you will reap the rewards.
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.
Julianne Wish
This installment of the series focuses on ways that a blog can help your business.
There are many ways that blogging can help you build your business. Here are some of them:
- Networking – Blogging gives you a great opportunity for networking. You should leave the comments function on/open. This gives you an opportunity to interact with your readers. They can leave comments and you can reply to them. Always reply to comments! You can then also visit their blog and leave comments. This builds a base of readers for your blog that will stop by frequently.
- Presence on the Internet. Having a blog gives you a presence online. You can get a URL for your blog if you’d like…the URL can contain some or all of your business name. This gives people two ways to find you.
- Services. When you have a business blog, you can have a separate page about you and your business where you can describe what your business has to offer and how to contact you. You can link to this page when you send out proposals to prospective clients, send out newsletters and e-mails. It is important that you keep this page up to date.
- Portfolio. If you have a portfolio, your blog is a great place to display it. Again, you should set up a separate page for this. Clients can get a good sense of your skills and work. Remember to also keep this page up to date.
- Subject Matter Expert. While you are letting people get to know you, networking and establishing relationships, you are also establishing yourself as a subject matter expert. By writing about your business you are establishing yourself as an expert in your field. However, it is important to remember that you should keep your posts professional. If you get too personal, it will hurt, not help, your business.
The next installment in the series will provide you with the information you need to get started on your own blog!
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.
Ally Loprete, Member Contributions
Work at Home Parents who are constantly on the go between their business and their families run more of a risk of “breaking down.”
A written schedule can help to keep you accountable to all your responsibilities, including yourself.
- Schedule work time for yourself that you know you can count on, such as while the kids are at school or during nap time, but remain flexible.
- Break tasks down into categories and dedicate 1 day of the week to each category. Marketing and PR on Monday, Social Networking on Tuesday, Blogging on Wednesday, etc.
- Plan quality time with the kids each day. Put those super multi-tasking skills to work! Kid time and house chore time can go hand in hand. Get creative and make a game out of the daily chores.
- Don’t forget to eat and sleep. You may laugh, but these are often the first things to go for a busy Work at Home Parent. The body needs food to stay nourished and sleep to stay refreshed, and both will contribute to more productivity and alertness.
- Wind down time: In addition to going to sleep at a decent hour, you must give yourself at least 1/2 hour of “wind down” time before bed. Read a book or do a crossword puzzle. But do not work. Just like a computer, your mind needs to adequately shut down and reboot for the next day.
Self -employed Parent Enthusiast Ally Loprete is the Founder of OurMilkMoney.com, a nationwide online business directory of self-employed parents, and the host of This Little Parent Stayed Home, a live weekly radio show, on The Toginet.com Radio Group which can be downloaded on iTunes. Ally is on a mission to help other’s deal with the sometimes overwhelming prospect of leaving a full time job to start a new business, while running a full time household and raising kids. She is resolute about creating a haven in which parents across the nation will continue to thrive and obtain the support they need in their personal journeys. Visit more at www.ourmilkmoney.com. Private coaching is available at www.thislittleparent.info
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.
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