That is a quote from an article I read this morning -The Mommy Myth Expert Article. This article featured Work At Home Mom, Renee Wood of The Comfort Company.

So much of the article rings true as I have balanced a business for the last seven years while juggling pregnancies, babies, car pooling, kids sickness, school events, community and household chores.

Working at home has its own challenges that differ from working moms and dads who leave home each day and enter the business world separate from their residence.

When I talk to people and they say “Oh you are so lucky that you get to work from home”, while it’s true and I do greatly appreciate and am Thankful for that option, they don’t know that I quietly also wish that I had an office to go to some days.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a work-at-home parent or if you don’t have kids, the challenge remains in the fact that you are solely responsible for the running of your online business, so it needs to be done efficiently… even if the laundry is piled up and talking to you.

Parents are often plagued by more work at home pitfalls than those without kids, just because kids bring a new element into the mix that stirs up more opportunity for interruptions and sometimes means less space is available for the work area.. for me it often means returning to my desk to find someone pounding on my keyboard.

Creating Your Work At Home Space

The first thing you want to do when trying to balance your home life with your online business is carve out a space that is dedicated to your ‘net marketing endeavors. It doesn’t have to be a lot of space – as long as you have a corner spot to place your computer and other online accessories that you use.  I know this isn’t always easy as I just lost my good headset to a fall from Webkinz world.

It’s best if you can have a space where you can go to work on your online business without distractions, but this isn’t always possible. If the noise is too much, you might consider setting off-peak hours, such as working only when the rest of the household members are in bed and you can concentrate on what you need to do. I personally get my best thinking work done from midnight to 4 a.m..

Flexibility and Getting Work Done

Moms love the flexibility they have in working from home and on the ‘net. If the kids have a soccer game, you’re free to shut down the computer and take off on a whim.. or at least have your Blackberry. If your spouse wants to take off for a weekend, then having your business online allows you to take your laptop with you and log on to check in from anywhere there’s an Internet connection.

While this is a lovely option, do not let it become a pitfall as time quickly slips through the cracks.  Create a work schedule, set your limits and hold yourself accountable.

Outsourcing for Online Business Growth

One lesson that I learned too late was the value of outsourcing.

As a mom, we often feel that we need to do “everything” and honestly, it’s impossible to be everything to everyone. Whether you decide to get help around the house with childcare or cleaning or you pick up a virtual assistant, it can not only grow your business but save your sanity.

Your Online Business Growth Evaluation

A business mentor is  something that everyone should have, I know some people that invest $20,000.00 a year on a mentor because they know the value will come back ten fold.

My personal business mentor once advised me to write down in a journal everything I do in a day then reflect on it after one week.

Next, go through your journal and highlight every business related action you made- updating a webpage, packing an order to ship, answering a customer call, writing advertisements, working with clients.

Look at these with fresh eyes and put a dollar amount to each one. Did it cost you time? That’s a negative dollar amount.. did it MAKE you money? Like networking and building relationships with customers? That EARNs you money.

The goal here is to understand the time sucking activities that are costing you time and money and outsource those so you, the BUSINESS owner, can do your job of GROWING your business.

This won’t solve the home balancing act- it doesn’t matter if you are a stay at home mom, a corporate job mom, an hourly working mom or an online business mom.. it’s never perfect, but it can make it a bit easier and more profitable.

Post from: Online Business Marketing For Home Based Businesses

Moms Balancing Working At Home

Their challenge?

They don’t know where to start. I know that feeling, when I started my first business 8 years ago I made countless mistakes while trying to teach myself the world of online business from my kitchen table. Just take my website for example..

The first option I used was Yahoo Small Business because I didn’t know html or even what pieces I needed to make a sale. Well, Yahoo Business became limiting as I got comfortable and wanted to start to add new features so I decided to hire a web designer to make my own personal “branded” website.

Then I decided to outsource the tedious acts of updating my site (because I still wasn’t very techie). That became REALLY expensive, REALLY fast.. so I wanted to take control of my website again. The problem? I didn’t realize the web designer created it in a manner that I was unable to take back control.. so back to the start, I found a NEW web designer and I paid her $600.00 to re-create the website and another couple hundred dollars for the software I needed to control my back end inventory.

Now, my situation was a bit unique because I had my own, invented product that I was creating and selling- so I had to deal with the fulfillment, shipping, product creation, material sourcing.. yes, I had to do it all and what happened? I burned out.. I’m totally honest here- I got fried on trying to find the materials, switch material seamstresses, track lost shipments.

But what I did find is that I LOVED online marketing- I loved learning traffic tricks from forum posting to backlink building to social networking.

SO here is what I would advise someone that wants to earn some extra money, the EASY way, from my own experience…

I would find a one stop shop that has a proven successful track record and has done the work for me. I think this Online Kids Store opportunity is a great example of a “done for you” option for someone that doesn’t want to invest money and time into creating a full blown eCommerce store or wholesale/dropship memberships.

Next, I would set up a nice clean blog without a bunch of distracting links and banners. If you don’t know how to blog, I highly suggest the Beginner To Blogger eCourse series. This will help even the most technically challenged beginner from buying their domain, to setting up hosting to installing the free blog software and start blogging!

The biggest mistake most new bloggers forget is to use their blog to build their list. Statistics show that one person equals $1.00 per month if you leverage your email marketing by sending them useful information and either a promotion for your store or an affiliate product every month.  That means even if you only have a couple hundred people on your list, that could be extra money every month! I use Aweber for my list management because it’s easy to use, I can set up messages once and they will go out automatically and the chances of them ending up in the spam folder are far less likely then if I send out emails from my personal email account. You can Try Aweber For Free here:

Next on the list would be to set up my social networking profiles and include the link to my new blog in the profiles on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace (don’t cringe), YouTube and a few more the “hot spots”. These are great for backlink s to vouch for your blog as the social networking sites have high page rank.

Create blog content by focusing each blog post on one product review. EXACTLY! You don’t need to come up with mind-blowing content and you don’t need to be a professional author. Especially if you are reviewing kids products using the Online Kids Store business you can just give your honest review. How do you use it, what do your kids think of it, what do you like or NOT like about it. Better yet, get a little FLIP camera and shoot a review of the product and upload it to YouTube and then you can cut and paste that into your Blog Post.

Next post your blog post on your social networking sites, you can do this manually or by using some “wordpress plugins”

Order up some free business cards from Vistaprint and put your blog and store URL on the card. Add a little freebie or what I call an “ethical bribe” to get people to visit your blog/store and get on your email list.

Then set a schedule and blog blog blog and make sure you link back to your products in your store. Add them to the social bookmarking sites like Stumbleupon and Furl or follow the easy steps for more traffic in my ebook for Beginners Website Traffic.

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So there you have it a full, second income in a box, what do you think? I would love to know your thoughts on this business model as an option for someone wanting to earn some extra cash and this home business model would fit you!
Get your Free* Startup Kit for a great 2nd income!

Post from: Online Business Marketing For Home Based Businesses

Home Business, Extra Income, Little Effort.. Scam or Real?