Options, Options

July 22nd, 2010

In this post I offer us work at home moms and would-be work at home moms the words of motivational speaker and author Brian Tracy:

This is a wonderful time to be alive. There have never been more possibilities and opportunities for you to achieve more of your goals than exist today. As perhaps never before in human history, you are actually drowning in options. In fact, there are so many good things that you can do, that your ability to decide among them may be the critical determinant of what you accomplish in life.

Enough said.

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Hear From Another Professional Woman with NonMom Skills and a Mother’s Heart

July 15th, 2010

I am excited to invite you to listen in this Saturday, July 17 at 10 AM Central Time (adjust for your time zone) to a live conference call featuring other women like yourself who have chosen to be at home with their children. This call is sponsored by Project MAHMA (Moms At Home Making A difference…and a lot of money) and you can listen in anonymously. Just dial 212-990-8000 and enter PIN 6262#. (In the unlikely event that you experience a busy signal when trying to access the call, you can try one of these alternate call-in numbers: 1-212-990-4000, or 1-212-990-2300. The PIN for both of these lines is the same as the main number: 6262#).

I would love to hear your impressions of this call!

0 Comments | Categories: Home-Based Business, Uncategorized, Working at Home

Possibilities, Not Problems

July 9th, 2010

Are you wanting to be a work at home mom, but keep coming up with all the reasons why it won’t work? Or are you a work at home mom who sees problem after problem with your situation? I think these are not uncommon scenarios for us professional women with nonmom skills and a mother’s heart. Maybe we’re just too smart! We can see all the roadblocks, all the challenges, and potential negatives. Have you ever heard the expression that smart people don’t make good entrepreneurs? Maybe we think too much?!

Well, I think if we can see problems, we can also see possibilities – and potential positives. We can fathom ways to overcome roadblocks and be confident in our abilities to deal with all the problems and/or reasons why it won’t work.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating flying by the seat of your pants with any old work at home scheme. I’m all for doing the research, making wise business decisions, and making a sound investment of time, energy and money into a solid option. But once that’s done, focus on possibilities instead of problems as a work at home mom.

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Knowing Yourself…Continually

July 2nd, 2010

Is the knowing of one’s self (so important for a work at home mom in being comfortable with the life choices she is making) a one-time project? Hardly!

“To know one’s self is a constant and continual process. Observe yourself. Be aware. Watch yourself in the moments of the day. Listen to yourself. Notice how you act or react in certain situations.” This is the advice of inspirational author Matthew Kelly in his book “The Rhythm of Life”. Kelly’s mission is to help people become the best version of themselves.

I have found that, while I am fairly adept at observing myself, I am quick to transition from observation to judgment. While it is helpful to acknowledge weaknesses along with strengths, berating myself for those weaknesses is not very productive. Far more productive is fashioning a plan to overcome such weaknesses.

For example, I originally intended to make this post much closer to the original post about knowing one’s self. And I am annoyed with myself that there was a lapse of several weeks. I have observed the action (or lack thereof). I have observed the annoyance. And now, it is my natural inclination to tell myself that I am too disorganized, too over-extended and too dumb to do this right. OK, OK, that last part about being dumb….I don’t think I truly think that about myself, but the impression is still there. Pretty harsh judgment.

It would be so much better to acknowledge that I get annoyed when I don’t follow through on an intention and then choose to (a) institute some practices or systems to help me in fulfilling my intentions; or (b) accept that, while it was a good intention, it was not vital for the success of the world, AND it may have been replaced with other equally good or even better intentions, such that annoyance is a really inappropriate response.

For example, the blog entry about choices posted in lieu of this one ties perfectly into this topic, as I am choosing how to respond to this observation about myself! And if I choose to stop judging myself at least long enough to reflect on that…voila! My original intention was, indeed, replaced with an equally good or even better intention. So, observing that I felt annoyance with myself as I strive to know myself, I can make another choice to replace that annoyance with a much more productive outlook. And the cycle continues. I can and want to continue to notice and observe myself so that I can know myself more fully and become the best version of myself.

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Choosing to Be a Work at Home Mom

June 25th, 2010

Speaking of choices, Stephen Covey (the 7 Habits author and motivational guru) has this to say:

“The choices, after all, are yours. You choose happiness. you choose sadness. you choose decisiveness. You choose ambivalence. You choose success. You choose failure. You choose courage. You choose fear. Just remember that every moment, every situation, provides a new choice. And in doing so, it gives you a perfect opportunity to do things differently to produce more positive results.”

Again, perfect advice for those of us choosing to “do things differently” as a work at home mom. When the going gets tough, when you question this career path, when you wonder about your sanity (!), remember…..you get to choose!!

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Don’t Forget About the Choices

June 17th, 2010

Many a work-at-home mom may be familiar with motivational author Jim Rohn, who offered this advice: “take a second look at your life and where you’re headed…You may be one of those who have become so involved in the process of earning a living that you’ve forgotten about the choices and the chances you have for designing your own life.”

Even AS a home-based business owner, I have to make a concerted effort not to be “one of those” who forgets that I have choices. First of all, I’m a creature of habit. I like routine. I do well with predictability. In addition, I do tend to easily engage in that process of making a living. It’s not even something I think about – I just do it. So, when I play with the idea of designing aspects of my life, in ways big or small, it is a big deal for me.

Toward the end of last month, I was bemoaning a big monthly newsletter project I wanted to complete and get out to my business network. It felt like an overwhelming amount of work, and I was being rather creative at finding ways to avoid it. My focus was on summer family affairs. But I had made a commitment to myself to do the newsletter, and I felt like I “had to” get it done.

Enter my business coach. She helped me identify all kinds of choices I didn’t even see in my consternation: I could subscribe to an online pre-made newsletter service and send that one; I could not send a newsletter that month at all; I could combine that month with the next month and do a single mailing at the beginning of the next month (instead of staying with my routine of sending toward the end of the month); I could send something else easier and less time-intensive to prepare in lieu of a newsletter….

OH, so I could make choices in designing this very small piece of my life that still honored the commitment I made to myself AND allowed me to maintain my family-first priorities!! Wow – what a great realization! It relieved so much stress that I just finished the newsletter up and sent it out. The finished product was slightly shorter than normal, with somewhat lower quality (in my opinion). But it garnered as much if not more response than any other newsletter I’ve sent over the years.

In retrospect, this seems like a very small thing. But combining enough of these small things makes a big difference in one’s quality of life. And, of course, this advice applies to big things as well, like if you are doing a “second look at life” in general. This is, I think, what motivates many professional women to opt for the work at home mom option. I admire and applaud those who follow Rohn’s advice: “take a second look at your life and where you’re headed.”

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Know Yourself, Work at Home Mom

June 10th, 2010

One of my favorite inspirational authors, Matthew Kelly, describes the importance of the “Knowledge Principle”. “Wise people know themselves and live from that knowledge,” he writes.

Of course, this advice is longstanding among great thinkers (think Socrates’ “know thyself”). And when I read it again recently, I was struck by how true it is for some women to make the decision to be a work at home mom.

I mean, deciding to make the transition from being in the corporate world to having a home-based business takes a knowledge of one’s self, one’s strengths and one’s priorities that may only come with purposeful reflection. Perhaps that transition is mental only, as with a woman who decides not to begin the traditional career path, in anticipation of motherhood. Mental and/or actual, I suspect there is some transition involved in most cases. While being a work at home mom is growing in popularity, it still isn’t the norm. And so, a woman must know herself to embrace this alternative option as the good fit for her and her family that it may very well be. Do you know thyself?!

1 Comment | Categories: Home-Based Business, Inspiration

Persistence and Effort by the Work at Home Mom

June 3rd, 2010

Persistence. You hear the word a lot in the work at home arena, and it truly is essential for a work at home mom to succeed. Persist at what? Persist at making the effort to do whatever it takes for your work at home situation to succeed, that’s what. That may be making “scary” phone calls. It might be learning a new, formidable task. Perhaps it entails having yet another presentation to a prospective client when the last one did not go as hoped.

You may have to persist at things that involve you only but you don’t particularly enjoy, and you may have to persist at actions (like phone calls and presentations) by which you hope to engage another person. In the latter case, another key word to remember is effort. You are responsible for your effort. You are not responsible for the outcome (which in these cases is dependent on another person’s behavior). As long as you persist in putting forth the effort, you succeed! Regardless of what the other person says, thinks, or decides. You win!

It is a completely logical conclusion to draw, but it sure can be hard to remember when your effort is met with repeated “no”s. That’s where the work at home mom draws on her resilience and inner strength (qualities that are a given for our breed). You DO have them – draw on them and let them shine. Congratulate your victory in making the persistent effort, no matter what the outcome!!

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Entrepreneurs Choose Their Own Chairs

May 27th, 2010

I am sitting in my new office chair, just delivered, as I type this post. Ahhh – it feels good. It should. It took at least four visits (to the office supply store) and what seemed like endless “sits” to find the chair I wanted. The vendor was very helpful – a “mom and pop” operation in a small nearby city – whose “chair person” listed endless features and chair qualities to consider. “This one works well for a lot of desk work”, “men tend to favor this one”, “I just ordered dozens of these for the local hospital executives”, etc.

That last statement really caught my attention. The chair going to the local hospital was not at all comfortable for me. What if I was an “executive” there? I would be very unhappy sitting and working in that chair. OK, maybe it’s not a big deal, but lots of those little deals add up. Chalk another one up for the home-based business as a work at home mom!

Sure, I could probably bring a chair I liked into my theoretical hospital office, but chances are I would have paid for it myself. If that’s going to happen, I might as well get a tax deduction for it ;-) . Maybe I should craft a bumper sticker: Entrepreneurs choose their own chairs!

0 Comments | Categories: Home-Based Business

Does Your Home-Based Business Need a Toll-Free Phone Number?

May 20th, 2010

I want to tackle a very practical subject with today’s post: the toll-free phone number. Does your home-based business need one? Well, that depends on the nature of the business and your clientele. If customer-initiated phone contact is critical to your business success AND your customer base extends beyond your local calling area, then the answer may be “yes”.

I have been surprised, though, to learn that I needed a 1-800 number, as they’re called, much less than I expected in my work at home mom field. I think the primary reasons are twofold: (1) with the increasing role of the internet, I have found myself communicating with my customers (and them with me) by e-mail more and more; and (2) as cell phones have become more widely used, with “unlimited minutes” packages common, people seem to be using “land lines” more infrequently. There is no charge to them to call my regular phone number (or my cell number), so the need for a free way to call me disappears. Now, I don’t have any statistics to back that up; I’m just commenting on what I have observed.

Technological advances have made it easier and easier to be a work at home mom, methinks. Here’s another example – you may not have to concern yourself with getting a toll free number. But if you do, they’re easy to obtain (check with your long distance carrier) and relatively inexpensive.

2 Comments | Categories: Home-Based Business, Working at Home