There is a lot of fun stuff in my work at home venture! I mean A LOT. And I want to be OK with that…

In my own work at home venture, I also offer the opportunity to join my team and be mentored in the development of your own home-based business. And I’ve probably sounded, at time, like a bandwagon master myself! But, something I’ve come to realize is that if you do jump on a bandwagon, there is always another parade…and it may be a glitzier, bigger parade. What if you’re on the wrong wagon?!?!

All this is to say, there are some basic fundamentals that should go into making a work at home decision, and we would probably all be well served to pay attention to them. If you think about it, you’re making a decision that will impact your entire life in many ways, and (hopefully) for a long time. In making a decision of that caliber, you owe it to yourself to do your “due diligence” in researching your work at home options.

So, what do you research? Well, I’m talking primarily here about opportunities to represent companies or use online systems through your own home-based business that is affiliated with an established “parent company”. Here are some things to consider:

• Market potential – looking to the future, how well-positioned is the parent company in terms of what it offers?
• Time commitment – is the amount of time you’re asked to invest commiserate with the return you will receive (heed that old adage, if it sounds too good to be true….it probably is!)?
• Product Quality – is there independent, trustworthy proof that the product(s) and/or service being offered are as good as they are claimed to be?
• Success rate of other workers at home affiliated with this company – are there actual people who have achieved what you’re being told it’s possible to achieve?
• Monetary Investment – are you asked to invest an appropriate amount of money to begin your home-based business? And what does that investment get you? (Either too much or too little initial investment engenders suspicion.)
• Parent company history – how long has the company been in business and how secure is it financially?
• Income Potential – how do the numbers compare with other options in terms of your income potential, both in the short term and in the long term?
• Parent company philosophy – is the company committed to values that resonate with your own values?

How do you get answers to these questions? The online presence of the parent company may (and should!) address many of them. And beyond that, there should be a person to ask, either from the parent company or a fellow home-based business owner affiliated with the same company.

So, what if these sources give the same “pitch” that you’re trying to discern? Well, then it becomes incumbent upon you to sort hype from fact. It may be a simple matter of your impression of your info source. If you make a grounded, thorough assessment, I bet you’ll be able to know what is a good fit for you.

In the long run, you’ll be very happy you took the time to consider things like these before “jumping”. By all means, join the work at home parade. Just take your time in selecting the right wagon!

• More women than men have received a graduate education and women’s gains in educational attainment have significantly outpaced those of men.

• Yet the pay gap between men and women persists, with women earning about 75% of their equally educated male counterparts.

• Female-headed familes have the lowest family earnings of all family types.

• Women are more likely than men to be in poverty.

The right work at home arrangement can be a terrific way to address these realities for women!  As an entrepreneur with her own home-based business, a woman can be equally rewarded for her professional aptitude. At the same time, she can experience greater flexibility to achieve the balance that we women are often looking to create in our lives!!

*From:Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being. U.S. Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration; Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget; White House Council on Women and Girls. March 2011.

Did you know some work at home options offer solutions for all of these issues?! (Yep, mine does …and yours can too!)

If you’re a work at home mom, or think you’d like to be one, do you think there are any fears involved with that?

Oh, yeah…there can be a big fear factor in “stepping outside the box” to be “just” a WAHM. Will your professional colleagues think you’re crazy? If you have a college education or beyond, what would your former professors think?

Then what about the fear of failure? A home-based business enterprise requires a lot of initiative and, of course, there is risk and the potential for failure.

Or even the fear of success?! (deep topic for another whole post sometime )

Sure, there can be fears in situating yourself as a work at home mom. But, as Emerson posited, the life rewards from conquering those fears are great!!

Monday’s The Early Show on CBS featured “great turnkey companies” for women, examples of ready-to-go companies that are ideal for busy women who want to get started in a business with minimal initial investment and most of the set-up work taken care of. Sounds just like us work at home moms, doesn’t it?

As long as it remains in the online archive, you can see the CBS video on these “turnkey companies” (including the company I represent!) here.

The program’s sessions cover “all the essential lessons of starting a business, from figuring start-up costs and profit goals, to marketing and developing a business plan to acquire a loan.” There is, indeed, a lot to cover in the nuts and bolts of starting a traditional business. Many a work at home mom has done it, and quite successfully. I enjoy reading those feature stories about a mom who took a simple idea and catapulted it into a thriving business venture working from home.

I also greatly appreciate the work at home option that does NOT require that kind of investment. One that comes with built-in infrastructure, manufacturing, and professional expertise, with minimal start-up costs and overhead. That was the home-based business option that was the best fit for this mom who wanted to work at home. Sound appealing? It’s available to you too….click here to learn more.

And then I came to a “Fraud Fact” listing that discredited the entire brochure. I couldn’t believe it. This is what I read: “Be cautious of work at home job offers.”

What?! Doesn’t the federal government know that upwards of 60% of Americans want to have a home business?!

Should you act with discretion in aligning yourself with a work at home company? Sure! Are you wise to exercise due diligence in evaluating work at home programs? Yes! Are there some out there who market work at home jobs that are not valid? Of course! But it’s not the work at home element that makes these suspicious.

I would have thought the USPS would have a little more savvy than that. At first, I was thinking of this is a fraudulent fraud alert, but then I decided that may be a little too strong. But a fallacious fraud alert for sure. We’ve come a long way in accepting the growing emergence of the U.S. home-based business. But apparently we still have a ways to go.

- a number of industries have free “Mastermind” groups, where a number of business owners from across the country get together, either by phone, or in person, to support one another and brainstorm

- some blogs and forums whose subject matters are not at all specific to this topic have “communities” specifically for those who work at home; this can be a good place to meet with other workers at home with whom you share something else in common as well

- there may be business networking groups (like BNI) in your area that at least indirectly support those with home-based businesses (alongside the more traditional business people)

- consider general conferences, workshops and inspirational speakers, even if they are not specific to your industry

- And, of course, allow work at home mom blogs to provide information, encouragement and inspiration .