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I was at a restaurant for lunch yesterday and there were two women sitting at a table next to ours. While I was waiting for my lunch date to arrive I overheard them talking. I can’t make this stuff up:
Woman #1: “Did you hear that Jill got a new job?”
Woman #2: ” Yes, I ran into her husband at the school and he told me. It sounds amazing actually, but it’s full-time.”
Woman #1: “I know! She told me last time I saw her. It’s pretty intense and probably involves some travel. I just don’t get how she is going to pull it off and still find time for her kids. I don’t mean to judge, but I don’t think I could be a great mom if I worked full-time.” Read the rest of this entry »
This weekend we went to visit our friends in New York. (I will spare you from any whining in this post about how much I miss New York. I promise. But I do, a lot.) Invariably we got into a conversation about work and how we all work too much, are sleep-deprived, don’t see our kids enough, don’t go on enough vacations, and so on. You know, the usual working families discussion fare. And then the mom said something I think so many of us can relate to: ” I like to work, I like what I do, but I just want to be able to do less of it — to work less than full-time.”
I certainly fee this way. I’ve always worked full-time and in my previous career in investing, full-time meant more than 8 hours a day. I’m pretty open on this blog about the fact that running Work It, Mom! involves working around the clock and usually putting in 10-12 hour days. I rarely complain because I LOVE what I do and I feel lucky to have the opportunity do create something that I think benefits other women. But I am exhausted and sleep deprived (which is starting to affect my health), I don’t see my daughter, my husband, or my family and friends as much as I’d like and I’d love to work less.
The thing is, I can’t. Read the rest of this entry »
I recently came to a realization that for the first two or so years of my daughter’s life I basically denied that my life had changed in any significant way.
Yes, I loved her tremendously and yes, I got a lot less sleep and was a lot more tired, but after my three-month long maternity leave was over I went back to work and continued to live pretty much my old life. I went off to my job at the office, worked until 5:30, and then rushed home to see my daughter for an hour before she went to bed. (Leaving at 5:30 is an unheard-of situation in the industry where I worked but I was the only senior woman at the office and while I got dirty looks, I made it clear that that was the deal. Period.) I worked from home at night to get things done, but I’d done that before as well.
We had a wonderful nanny and my daughter was really happy and well taken care of by her. The nanny also cooked and I’d often come home to a fully-cooked meal plus some. I juggled, it was harder than before we were parents, but I was out of the house and away from my daughter a lot more than I was there and the juggle was concentrated to the few hours at night and on weekends.
Around the time my daughter turned two I had a moment that I’d never expected myself to have — I realized that I could not continue to be away from her for most of the day during the week, to have someone else know her teachers, her friends, her words and funny habits better than me. I’d never thought of myself as a typical maternal type but there they were, my maternal instincts, kicking in and STRONG. And so, as I’ve written about here, I decided to quit my fast-paced, secure, and too-highly paid job and change careers so I could have more flexibility. A year later we’d moved to a different city, I’d started Work It, Mom! from my home office, and my daughter went to daycare. No nanny, no full-time office job, no dinner help, no someone else to stay home with her when she is sick.
I’m now six months into this new phase of my life and I’ve learned something: Read the rest of this entry »
I just came back from seeing a new doctor. We moved recently, so I am making the doctor rounds (fun, I know.) This time it was a new OBGYN and I really liked her, which is a HUGE relief, since I loved my OB back in NYC and have been dreading switching to someone new. But something happened at the appointment that has compelled me to intrude on our Guest Blogger Tuesday here at the Work It, Mom! Blog:
In the pile of the paperwork that the doctor’s office gave me to fill out there was a basic “tell us about yourself” questionnaire. I was on autopilot while filling it out until I got to this question:
Do you work outside the home?
First I just tried to figure out what to write as an answer. Since I work from a home office, the obvious choice was, of course, to write “No”. But what I think the question was asking is whether I have a job and the answer to that is “Yes”. What I really wanted to write in that field is a long and somewhat annoyed essay about the millions of moms who work from home, make a living for their families, and don’t see themselves as not working simply because they don’t go to an office every day. But I got a hold of myself just in time to just write “Run a company from home” and move on to the next set of questions. Read the rest of this entry »
Yes, I am writing this right on the heels of my post about how working on a flexible schedule can put tons of stress on your marriage. But while it does take some organization to succeed when working from home it is something that so many working moms say they’d love to find a way to do. Since we’ve launched Work It, Mom! I get several emails weekly from moms asking for advice about starting an online business, which is, by the way, a great type of business to work on from home.
But I am not an expert on online businesses you can start and run from home. So I asked someone who is to share some practical advice with you. Her name is Wendy Piersall and she is the founder of eMOMSATHOME.COM, a great site for parents who run internet-based businesses and work from home. I recently met Wendy at Blogher and she is one smart lady. She is also a mom. Here is a great post from her about starting a home-based online business:
Can anyone make money online? I do believe so. But not everyone WILL make money online, because as I have said before, making money on the internet takes a long time to learn, and most people give up because it can be extremely frustrating.
My one piece of advice for starting an internet home business is this :: Don’t expect to make any real money for 365 days (or so!) . Although I will add that service-based businesses tend to bring in revenue faster, I would still allow for a full year to replace your outside-the-home salary.
The good news about this industry is that as long as you are willing to put in the hours (days… weeks…. months….. ) to learn the ropes, you can bootstrap your business with extremely little money, generally speaking. Some businesses take more to start than others. I’ve probably directly invested less than $3000 getting this blog up and running, and now revenue is increasing at about a 125-140% pace every month after being in business for 16 months.
So, where do you start from here? Some general rules of thumb:
- Pre-packaged programs only work as much as you can customize it and make it unique and your own. Even then, techniques that work for one niche won’t work in all niches.
- Be wary of any “system” that promises instant results (especially anything that sounds like a get-rich-quick scheme!)
- Knowing the basics of html, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), social media, and traditional marketing and sales are a must.
- Every business is made stronger by specializing in a tight niche. Know your audience and stick to it.
Unless you have a brilliant tech idea that makes venture capitalists drool, you need to determine where your strengths are and which business model you plan on following (and you don’t need this list). I have run three home-based businesses in my life, all of which leveraged my current skill set as the foundation for building the business.
Look over the following list and single out the ones in which you have at least some experience. You probably won’t have all of the skills necessary, so don’t let that stop you! All you have to do is work hard and be willing to learn.
Click here for Wendy’s list of 10 Internet Businesses You Can Start In Your Underwear.
Are you a mom who runs a business from your home? Tell us about it and how you got started in the comments section.