When Moms Mean Business, Life Gets Real
Guest Blog by: Leslie Campos at Wellparents.com
Here is something that can’t be stated enough: Stay-at-home moms have some of the best business operation skills. They are organizers, schedulers, budget gurus, human health technicians, animal health technicians, tutors, managers, negotiators, crisis managers … the list is endless. On top of that they are cooks, chauffeurs, social directors, coaches, motivational speakers, and more. Moms take multi-tasking to another level.
If you want to start a work-from-home business, have confidence in the knowledge that you do have what it takes. All you need to do is find the work and the model that works for you and fits in with your life. If you still have doubts, let Jennifer Jakobsen Life Coaching help you find the confidence you need to crush the mompreneur life – for real!
Do it for love
If you already know what type of business you want to start, great! That’s the first step to get the ball rolling on your new business venture. For many moms, two natural starting points are 1) a past career or work duties and 2) something you love doing. If your ideal business checks both of those boxes, that’s even better!
If you are still uncertain about what type of business to start, it’s helpful to take a self-inventory. Start with what you are good at doing, then for each of those skills, talents, or even hobbies that you enjoy, rate them on a scale – like 1 to 5 – of how much you love doing them. Just because you excel at cleaning doesn’t necessarily mean you should clean houses or offices for a living. However, if you enjoy managing people, a cleaning business or even a franchise may be perfect for you. In fact, there are a host of franchises that work well for moms because most are already established brands and offer assistance with things like marketing, freeing up your valuable time as you carefully negotiate your family and work life.
If you are still vacillating over the type of business, you can approach it more objectively and take a quiz that assesses your skills and personality to help align your interests and talents with optimal business choices. In today’s online environment, you have many viable opportunities, with many that require very little startup investment – and some that can even help you rid your home of clutter or items that your children have outgrown!
Don’t try to do it all
As The Mogul Mom points out, one of the most difficult things about working at home with children is being able to focus on work – but this is something you already know. How many times have you tried to organize your household tax documents or have a telephone conversation with a teacher, with children’s dialogue competing with your concentration? However, it’s one thing to accept that challenge as something that comes with the territory, and another to not do anything to help your productivity when you need it.
Consider having some childcare help accessible for when you need it, or hire someone part-time a few days a week. It can be a trusted teenager for a few hours after school, a relative, or a professional nanny from an online service.
This also applies to your budding new business. At some point, you will likely want to look at hiring help as you grow and need assistance in efficiently managing some of your business tasks and functions. However, before you do, you need to have some basic business infrastructure in place – especially an early stage startup payroll processing mechanism.
As an employer, you need forms for your employees to fill out, even part-time ones, to accurately calculate and process things like taxes – as well as send your payroll taxes to the Internal Revenue Service. You will also need to consistently schedule payroll, and decide on whether you want to offer the convenience of direct deposit, or use paper checks. Weigh the costs of outsourcing this critical business function with hiring someone to do it, or finding a robust small business payroll service that you can easily manage yourself.
Be a good and fair boss to yourself
Everyone wants to work for a fair boss, including you! That means you need to take it easy on yourself. Being a perfect mom means accepting the things we do imperfectly, and you need to apply that to your entrepreneurial life, as well. If you missed a deadline on a proposal that could have brought you a lucrative client, evaluate what happened and schedule things more realistically the next time. That’s keeping it real, and it applies to the mom life as well as the entrepreneurial existence. And remember, if you ever feel consumed or paralyzed by guilt, reach out to Jennifer Jakobsen Life Coaching and get back on the mompreneur track.
Photo by Sai De Silva on Unsplash