First, let’s get real about this starting a business from home deal.
It can be more convenient and your schedule can be more flexible, yes.
Having your own business rewarding, yes.
Easier than working for someone else, outside the home, doing the commute, punching a clock…
No, not easier.
Starting your own business (no matter where you do it) and being responsible for bringing in the clients so you can bring home the bacon…very hard.
Now try building that business when there’s leg huggers fighting over your right leg – when clearly you’ve got two and they can have one each…since they actually MUST hold on to your legs. There’s also a house to clean, dinner to burn, NYTimes calling to sell you a subscription – the list goes on.
Again, very hard.
But not impossible.
I’m proof.
I’m living my WAHM dream of being with my kids while running a business.
Now, I’m not a millionaire.
My business isn’t set it and forget it and watch money roll in as people click that Buy Now button.
Though I did try that approach with internet marketing for a bit, my heart wasn’t in it.
I wanted a real business. I wanted to make a name for myself.
I wanted to change the world by helping others and by providing a top notch service utilizing my strengths of being creative, analytical and having the ability to decipher and teach any topic that I truly love.
It wasn’t easy. I stumbled a few times. I tried things because the “business gurus” said it was THE way to get things done.
“Set your business goals first and build a 5 year plan”
Based on what goals exactly? People stumble over this every time. Now don’t confuse this with personal goals.
A personal goal is what you want for yourself. A business goal is what you want for your business.
It’s bad enough in job interviews when you’re asked, “where do you see yourself in 5 years” and you really see yourself taking the interviewer’s job but you can’t say that. Now imagine having to sit down and set a goal for a business first. A business that you have a vague idea about.
“I want to be my own brand”
“I want to have a striving business”
And then you have to build a plan to get there?
Really?
How practical is that for a mom who wants to start a home business?
It took over a year to find my groove. To flesh out what works for me.
To find the perfect business for me that was satisfying while being profitable.
That’s THE hardest part, ya’ know.
Deciding what kind of business to start, what kind of service to offer.
You can’t just decide you want to start a business and then build a 5 year plan for it.
And I know there’s a lot of info out there on the www about how to start a business.
But that’s not what you need yet.
You need to decide what kind of business to start.
And yes, internet marketing makes it seem easy. There are lots of “passive income” stories.
But even if passive income is what you want, you still need to determine what you can do to get that.
“Pick a product everyone wants, sign up as an affiliate and create a business around it. Put up a Blog and SEO the crap out of it.” – Bullshit.
It’s not long term. I don’t care how evergreen the product is.
I’m talking about building a business you can grow. Put your name on. Be proud of. Be known for.
And since I’m all about sharing my experience, here’s the strategy I used.
11 Practical Steps To Choosing Your WAHM Business
- Evaluate your strengths.
- Pick what you love
- Research your market.
- Define your market.
- Determine the services your strengths provide that your market can benefit from.
- Research those services to learn if they are in demand/profitable.
- Outline the tasks required to get the business started.
- List what the business requires for production.
- Project your available investment amount.
- Define the time you have available to invest into running a business.
- Reanalyze the services you want to offer. How much of it does your schedule and budget allow for?
I know it seems daunting.
But this is the exact strategy I used. Though I didn’t think of it as a strategy – it was just an outline at that time – I’ve used this same outline for multiple clients.
And I can tell you, going through these steps brought me to a place where I was finally confident in what I’m doing, what I am offering.
I can tell you I’m happy, both spiritually and financially.
Now along with my personal goal of being a work from home mom, I also have business goals and financial goals and being organized and practical is the key.
That’s why I’m offering you a download of my strategy outline and projected expense checklist. So you can see exactly how I fleshed it out and go forth in creating your own with confidence and practicality.
It’s okay to be afraid. If you weren’t then I would fear for you. Be afraid and then do it anyway.
14 Comments
I love your new site! Congrats!
I can’t begin to tell me how much you helped me when I decided to start Little Love.
So, thank you.
People, you need to listen to Vanita, she knows her stuff!
I am happy girlfriend that I could be of service. You’re gonna rock the web with your cool biz.
Time management is the biggest challenge for WAHMs, Vanita. Once that commitment is in place, it is a little easier to tackle the other steps.
The site looks great – I am in love with the header – what a brilliant idea to put the chessman there! But then you rock. Ah, I await the day when you rock my sites Hugs!
sistah, that is not just any chessman, that’s the Queen! ya know, as in me. 😀
thank you girl for the kind words, i’m pretty much in love with my header too 😉
has it been two weeks since you bought your domain?
I agree, it’s taken a year for me 2 grow comfortable in my niche, and just now am figuring out ways to flesh that into a plan. I have a better idea now, than I did a year ago, of just what direction I ought 2 be going….What can I say? I’m a slow learner.
Good look on the new blog, & as always, I’m tuned in to what Vanita has 2 say about making money blogging. =)
lol Tracie you should join the affiliate program for the Google Luv Course. You don’t even need a blog to promote it and there’s sound testimonials behind it. Plus it’s $10 commission per signup. http://afterbedtimeblog.com/affiliates/
Ok, where have I been under a rock?! Looks great girl!
thank you thank you 😀
You have the perfect strategy laid out. Follow through is huge on whether it works or not.
I’m with you, I’ve done it the “hard” way. With honor and integrity. I worked for some clients that were doing the yucky, spammy work at home options and I had to let them go. I needed the money, totally needed the money but I hated turning my computer on each day to see what they were asking me to do.
Working for clients in my niche rocked. Writing up plans for clients in my niche was so much more fun.
Love this site! Just signed up. I always gems from your posts – great list!
girl friend it’s great to see you!
thank u thank u. i hope to never disappoint.
I’m so blessed to know you. You’ve inspired me in ways that you will never, ever know.
You seriously are Wonder Woman, you know that?
I’ve been running myself ragged lately with everything I’m undertaking and here you are launching a new (fabulous) website complete with your Google Luv course, WP tutoring, etc etc etc…
I need to take a page out of YOUR book when it comes to getting things done.
I definitely agree with Ange’s comment: You’re truly an inspiration to many woman!