Julianne Wish
There are a lot of interesting business ideas out there for work at home moms (WAHMs). As more and more employers look for ways to cut costs, hiring people to work remotely is getting more common. Also, some WAHMs run their own business and have people working for them. Here are some business ideas and strategies for a home based business for moms.
Telecommute
There are multiple resources on the web where you can browse for telecommuting jobs. You can also check with local employers who may appreciate your skills. Your current employer or employers from your past are often sources of telecommuting jobs.
Telecommuting jobs are varied, but writing, typing and secretarial duties are probably the most common. Some people work for travel agencies or do other phone work from their homes. Tap into something you already know how to do and offer your services to employers who need you.
Freelance Work
Another business idea is to do freelance work for clients. You could offer marketing advice, design websites, write articles, edit e-books and a host of other things. Working freelance means you have multiple clients rather than an employer and you will need to market your business and skills in order to find clients.
Start Your Own Business
If you don’t want to work for others (or if you want to do both), you can start your own home based business. Like freelancing, you are responsible for finding clients and promoting your business. Consulting, providing information, coaching, and building a membership website are just some of the ideas for a home based business. Some moms have had success providing information to others who want to build their businesses from home.
Marketing
Choosing the right marketing strategy (or strategies) is important. Look into social networking like Facebook and Twitter, and use their advertising platforms to get your name out. However, it pays to take it slow. No one wants to be ‘spammed’ all the time about your business. Build relationships in your demographic – join groups, make friends, join discussions, etc. – and then see where you can advertise to your potential customers.
Depending on your budget, you might consider hiring someone else to do your marketing – in fact, it could be a nice give and take if you hire another WAHM to market your business for you. Maybe she, in turn, can use your help.
Have a Plan
You need to know what you’re doing and have a handle on the tasks that need to be done. As a mom, you will have unexpected interruptions and unexpected moments when you can snatch a few mintues to work. If you have a grasp on the day’s tasks, you can slip in and out of work mode and always know what needs to be accomplished. If you have a spare ten minutes you weren’t expecting, and you have to spend that ten minutes organizing and figuring out what needs to be done, you’ve lost productivity.
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
Work at Home Moms (WAHMs) often begin their ventures with very little money to invest. There are specific business ideas that can be started on a shoestring budget. Here are some business ideas for moms who have few start up funds.
First, a Website…
Since you will probably be finding many of your clients online, you will need a website. This is generally considered to be step one for any work at home venture. It is a means by which you can promote yourself, and a place to refer people who want more information.
Prospective clients can visit your website to learn a bit about you before hiring you by email through your site. Thankfully, though, starting a website is not expensive. You can generally purchase a domain for less than $10, or you can start a blog for free and build that as your promotional online presence.
Virtual Assistant
A Virtual Assistant (VA) is someone who does administrative or secretarial work remotely. VAs transcribe, translate, prepare mailings, and do other administrative duties. Virtual Assistants are not confined to secretarial work, however. Some VAs offer web design, marketing consultation, and even technical support to clients. Since VAs use the internet and telephone, they can garner clients around the world.
Some suggest taking a VA course online. Whether you take a course or not, success depends significantly on the hours you are willing to put in. Some VAs become so successful that they begin their own VA business, employing a staff of VAs who can serve their clients.
Consulting
Teaching others something you know is a low cost work at home idea. Consulting can start with your own acquaintances and friends – spread the word that you have valuable knowledge and are going into business sharing this knowledge with others.
Some ideas for consultant businesses are in the fields of nutrition, natural lifestyles, green living and marketing. But in reality, there are so many possibilities in the consulting world that you can get unique and creative with your consulting business. Just make sure you are filling a real need before you venture out to sell your knowledge.
Childcare
Someone needs to care for children while their parents are working – even working from home! Once you check with your local regulations and laws in this regard, running and in home daycare (or something less official, such as watching one family’s children) can be a lucrative at home business.
Writing Web Content
The internet is the place to go for information. This is why no one buys set of encyclopedias anymore! That information has to get out somehow, and writers of web content are often in demand. You can work for a publishing company that provides web content to its clients and write articles on various subjects.
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
Today, there are many work at home options available. In order to stay motivated and succeed, you will want to choose something you are good at and enjoy.
Of course, there are scams out there that promise you thousands of dollars for doing nothing but what you want all day, and this simply isn’t realistic. Working from home is still work! It will be much easier, though, if you choose something that interests you and that you enjoy doing. Here are some options and how you can determine what works for you.
Time
Be honest about how much time you have. If you have young children, you’ll need to arrange for childcare or work around their schedule. If you only have ten hours a week to put toward a work at home job, then it’s better to go ahead and admit that now rather than bite off more than you can chew.
List your skills.
Making lists is not always our first instinct, but it’s a good exercise for looking truthfully at your abilities, hopes, dreams, etc. Begin by making a list of your practical skills – these can run the gamut from meal planning to typing to teaching.
Then, make a list of all your income needs. How much money do you need to quit your day job, or to pay the mortgage? List all expenses from groceries to car payments.
Finally, make a list of your goals and dreams for your business. Where do you envision your business going? Are you content working for others or do you want to go into business for yourself? Include in this list your financial goals – maybe you’d like to afford a vacation, a new car, or just the utility bill.
Having these lists will help you determine if a work at home opportunity is a fit for you. If it doesn’t help you meet your goals, it probably isn’t right for you.
Practical Steps.
If you’re working from home, you have a computer and an internet connection, right? So, get online and research. If you are going to work at home for a company, research that company thoroughly.
Another online option is to join a work at home community where jobs are posted regularly.
How much money do you have to invest?
Some legitimate companies do require a cash outlay. If you are going into business for yourself, you will need to consider the cost of a website, possibly hiring a designer, marketing and advertising.
Next: Top Business Ideas for Work at Home Moms on a Shoestring
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
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.
Chris Loprete, daddysden, Dads
I’ve noticed one new thing about myself that I’m attributing to being a father. I make a lot more noise when I stand up. Okay, wait. Two things. I cry at the drop of a freakin’ hat now! Growing up I was always a sentimental guy (to a fault), but short of excruciating pain or a death in the family it would take a lot to actually start the water works. Three big exceptions: the movies Terms of Endearment and Glory and for some reason the Happy Days episode when Fonzie goes blind. Buckets.
Now it takes very little to get me verklempt. I’m not talking about sobbing or rending of garments or anything. But the least little tug at the heartstrings will get me welling up. Movies, TV shows, even commercials. The wireless provider ad (I’m not protecting anybody’s name. I seriously forget who the ad was for) where the guy is on a business trip and miserable and is sitting at the airport and then his daughter appears next to him smiles and says “Hi Daddy” and he starts asking her how her day was and you find out he’s on his cell phone talking to her with a big smile on his face? I was a mess.
THERE! See? Even now I just felt my tear ducts start to work. Or there’s a scene in the brilliant mini-series Band of Brothers when the American Army liberates a Belgian town from the Nazis. A GI approaches a young Belgian boy and gives him a chocolate bar. The boy’s father says “He’s never had chocolate before.” The boy takes a bite, looks at the soldier and smiles. Forget it. I was done. Even family sitcoms like The Middle or Modern Family will have a sweet moment each week that will get me going.
So add one more thing to the long lists of Things They Don’t Tell You about being a Dad. You are destined to turn into one big wuss. I guess it’s a good thing though. Looking at the examples above, one common denominator is that any situation eliciting an emotional response from me always involves children. So it’s no wonder these reactions have started since I became a father. It just tells me that I’m so in love with my kids and being a Dad that any sentimental situation on TV, film or even books involving children succeeds in triggering such a stirring of emotion in me for my kids that I…excuse me I have something in my eye.
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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.
Resource Articles
Technology is the reason that so many of us are able to learn how to be the new bosses of our lives.
In fact, working remotely was only a big adjustment for everyone who WAS NOT a work-at-home parent. That’s right. We did it for years.
Moms are technical and savvy. And don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise.
We learned how to take advantage of tech resources to build websites while watching soccer practice, take business calls on the playground, and pivot like nobody’s business. Covid Shmovid. We knew how to work at home LOOOOOONG before the rest of the world did.
We had to. We did it to grow our own home businesses when our employers wouldn’t let us work remotely as new parents.
Time Management is Key.
Once you become a stay at home parent who is juggling a new career, your time becomes the most valuable commodity you have. You simply can’t waste one moment doing a task that doesn’t have some kind of pay off. Of course, this may seem simple, but very often we work hard at creating the perfect newsletter, or blog, or radio podcast and there is no real value to it if there isn’t an audience for it.
Technology can get you the audience you need as well, leaving no stone unturned in any corner of our world. If there is a perfect client for you in South America, the internet can bring them to you. No one should feel embarrassed about asking how TicToc works, or the meaning of ’embedded’ but the reality is there are still millions of people out there feeling like infants in our cyber-world. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and don’t allow a tendency to become overwhelmed shut you down completely.
Do yourself a favor and become acquainted with Google and YouTube. Both sites are an information junkies best friend. It’s what the kids are doing.
Ally Loprete, Community, Direct Sales, Resource Articles
In case you haven’t noticed, “Less is more” is not only economical, it’s the latest trend. With good reason. With the unsteadiness of the economy people are beginning to feel more comfortable with those who are also behaving with frugality. Your clients want to know that you appreciate the need for living within tighter budgets and that their hard earned dollars are not supporting frivolous spending or unnecessary expenses for flashy arrogance.
Where the high rise office in the business district once may have appeared impressive to clients, it now may appear unmindful to the financial challenges of our current society. Setting up your place of business in a home doesn’t necessarily indicate a flailing business as it once did, but instead, it indicates common sense and that the business is smart for making the choice to conserve.
We are a quickly evolving culture, and the one thing that we all have going for us is the ability to empathize with one another. It’s the primary reason we need to make the decision to support those who have chosen to provide products or services out of their home. Small businesses need you as much as you need them. By working together and utilizing our power as consumers, we can rebuild an economy that works in our favor.
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Chris Loprete, daddysden, Dads
by Chris Loprete
The “turning 40” clouds are darkening on the horizon. By the time you read this the skies will have opened up and I’ll be soaking wet. I was fully prepared to suffer hourly panic attacks and sink into a deep depression once the storm hit. I’m definitely susceptible to a major mid-life crisis, but I think I can stave it off for a few more years. So stay tuned because as readers of this blog, you’ll get to witness my descent into madness. That’ll be fun for you.
I actually feel pretty good about turning 40. I’ve always been one for new beginnings. Every major calendar event is an excuse to start over. January 1st? THIS year’s gonna be different! Birthday? THIS is gonna be my year! Arbor Day? THIS is my chance to be more outdoorsy. But I really mean it this time. They say life begins at 40 and I don’t think you can fully understand that phrase until you’ve reached that milestone. My twenties were fun but they don’t count. I was a kid. I was running all over the country (literally) and working in small theatres for no money, with no idea of what to do with my life or where to do it. Then came my 30s and it took the full ten years to grow up. Married at 31, homeowner at 32, father at 35, father again at 38. And now the start of my 40s. I feel like it’s time to start living the life I’ve worked so hard to build for the last ten years. It creeps me out that I vividly remember my parents turning 40. One should never feel like they’re catching up to their parents, ya know? At the same time though I remember wondering where I’d be when I reached their age. Would I have found the love of my life? Check. I woke up next to her this morning. Would I be a father? Check. I have the two cutest and sweetest boys in the world. Yes, I’m the one. Would I love my job? Check. Would I be an Emmy or Oscar winner? Okay…let’s stick a pin in that one for now. Look, I don’t own my dream home. I don’t sleep on a pile of money at night. And as a friend once said “life is hard and expensive.” But looking back at my past (as I’m notorious for doing) I’ve done okay. And I’m ready to start living. Another expression is that 40 is the new 20. If that’s true that would also be great. Buy that math, 60 would be the new 40 so life would begin then too.
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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