When you become a work-at-home job, you will also become a professional juggler. To people who talk to moms who have made that transition, it seems like the work-at-home mom has it easy. After all, you don’t have a boss, you can work in your pajamas and get up to play with the kids whenever you want to. Right?
Not exactly. Before you make that jump, its good to do some planning. Along with getting good work and having plenty of ideas on what kind of work to do, you need ideas on how to actually be productive and keep your customer’s satisfied once you get them. The only true statement we made earlier is you can work in your pajamas. You don’t have a boss, you have many. Every customer is your boss. And the way they promote or “fire” you comes in the form of more work from the customer or when they decide not to use your services again.
A work-at-home mom will have at least as many deadlines as anyone who works in the business world. You may have more deadlines as you work with your many customers to provide them with your services to meet their expectations. So the number one qualification you need to be a success working at home is discipline. There are some things you can do to help you stay focused and provide good service to your customers day after day.
The best gift you can give yourself in your home based business is a dedicated work area or office. So look at your home and decide which room you can set aside to be your office. That office is a space you can organize for efficiency. It should have a door that can be closed and maybe locked so you cannot be interrupted if you are using the telephone to service your customers. Along with setting that space aside, take the time to keep it organized. Your efficiency will skyrocket if you are organized to be able to get to your files and supplies quickly so you can stay focused on work more of your dedicated work time.
The tools of your trade in that office should be dedicated to your work. You will almost certainly need a computer with a good internet connection. It is vital that the kids know that they are not to see the computer in mommy’s office as a toy. Set the kids up with their own computer so they can have their internet fun in another room. Mommy’s computer and internet connection should be off limits. Along with making sure that machine is always available for your work, this also protects your computer from virus invasions or any other dangers that kids bring to an internet enabled computer.
Also, set up a phone line so your business has a separate phone number. There is nothing more disastrous to your growing home based business than having an important business call to make but your teenage daughter is on a marathon gossip or flirting call so she won’t give up the line. Avoid the problem of family fights and dedicate a line to your business. That also assures that any calls coming to that phone are your customers so there is no doubt what that phone number is for.
Finally, a work-at-home mom is also a work-at-home family. Naturally, you will dedicate the hours while the kids are in school to your business. But you should also talk to your family, including your spouse, that there will be hours when they are home that mommy is “at the office” and interruptions should be kept to a minimum.
Of course, you want to be there when here is a crisis. That is the whole idea of being a work-at-home mom. But make it a family project to keep you productive and working for designated hours of the day. Then when you close that office door and you are off duty, be off duty and give your family all the love and attention they deserve. You don’t have a commute so you can quickly transition between working mom and mommy. So keep your worlds separate and both of them will prosperous from your discipline.
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