Mornings with Mom » Home Based Business

Ideas for Stay-At-Home-Moms to Contribute Financially in Today’s Economy

mom — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 08:16:19 +0000

With the financial challenges that many are facing these days, a double income in a family is necessary to stay afloat. This has caused a great challenge for women who have always wanted to homeschool their child(ren) or be the homemaker that they have always wanted to be. This can often even cause tension between young married couples.

The role that a mom plays in the stability of her household may often be overlooked due to the lack of financial support that she brings into the household because of the choice of being a SAHM (stay at home mom),

I would like to encouraged SAHMs everywhere and say that staying home and not working (a traditional job) does not have to equate to “no income” being made. It just takes some creativity!

A few ideas for SAHMs to contribute financially is by:

tutoring other kids during the day substitute teaching (offers flexibility of scheduling) homeschooling other kids with yours organizing bus trips once a month or every other month selling on eBay internet marketing affiliate selling other people’s products running your own online bookstore outsourcing

and many, many more ideas!

Depending on the SAHM’s skill set, creativity and situation there are many things for SAHMs to do to create an additional income while being at home. Some things to do are either free or very inexpensive. With today’s technology and the internet in the house…..the opportunities are vast in what can be done to earn a second income.

Note: Be very careful with all of the “Work at Home” schemes that are out there. Do your research. Get references. Use your own creativity to come up with ways to leverage the time you have and your influence.
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Extra Income Working at Home

mom — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 19:55:53 +0000

In the past, working at home was a luxury for the people that could afford to put in the money to get started. For some it was a dream come true and for others it was just a dream. Besides money, there is also something else a person must have in order to have their own home business. Discipline and determination. If a person does not stick to a business plan the business will not success. All the distractions will get in the way and the work will not get done. Sometimes a choice will have to be made and priorities will have to be set in order to succeed.

When having a home business, the customers you draw in are dependent on you serving them with quality and respect. Your customers need to know you will get the job done no matter what. If you continually put your customers needs on the back burner, that is a sure way to lose them. They will think of you as unprofessional and uncaring. They will think you must not care to succeed if they don’t get their needs met.

When you first start working at home, it may feel very liberating and wonderful because there is no one to answer to but yourself. With that comes a responsibility to keep yourself on track and moving forward. With others around it may be difficult at first. That is why you must keep yourself on a schedule so you will meet your deadlines and get new customers or clients.

If you are one of those people that find it hard to stick to a schedule because working at home is so unscheduled, you may want to treat it kind of like a job outside of the home. Get up, get ready for work by showering and wearing work clothes, get your breakfast and coffee and walk to the office. Even though it’s down the hall, being dressed for the job may put your mind set in the working mode. You know you have a job to do so you do it.

Have regular working hours just like at a job outside the home. Once you get used to it, you can give yourself some leeway and do some work at night if you want to do something else in the morning or afternoon. Your clients will not care if it’s 7 in the morning or 7 in the evening, as long as the project is done on the date specified. When this is accomplished is entirely up to you.

Another very important factor in running a work at home business is to be organized. The lack of organization can be the death of your business. If there are important details involved with a certain client or project, you do not want to forget it. The worst thing you can do is forget a client, they will definitely not be back. This tells them they are not important and you can do without their business.

Once you establish your schedule and discipline, you will find it easier to finish your work on time and you will be able to take on more work. Find your comfort zone and continue to build your business and make it successful.
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WAHM: Work at Home Mom or Wandering Around House More?

mom — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:31:20 +0000

It’s Monday morning – 8AM. The kids are at school. The house is quiet. I have 3 hours before I need to pick my daughter up from Kindergarten. I am sitting down at my keyboard with a fresh cup of coffee in one hand and my to-do-list in the other. I spent 30 minutes last night writing down all of the things I need to do this week. I have a list of all the avenues I can take to expand my business. I have my plan of action! I have all the tools I need! I am ready to go!

But, you know, I should start a load of laundry before I get on the phone. The hamper looked rather full this morning. There, that’s done. Oh, my coffee is a little cold. I think I’ll go out to the kitchen and warm it up. Oh no, my son left his dishes on the counter this morning. I’ll put those in the dishwasher while my coffee is warming up. What?!? No one emptied the dishwasher! I had better take care of that! Buzz! Time to switch the laundry! Ring, ring! Hi, Mom. Yes I did hear it was raining there today. What happened to the flowers? Well … Oh look at the time! I better go pick up my daughter from Kindergarten!

Does this sound like your “work day”? I would start each day with the best intentions only to get side-tracked along the way. My business wasn’t where I wanted it to be and I couldn’t understand it. I had time marked off on my calendar to work my business but nothing was getting done. I was a Project Manager in my previous life so organization runs in my blood.

A wise owl then passed along this piece of wisdom: You can work your business part-time or full-time but not in your spare time!

Wow! That really hit home to me! When I look back over the past week, that is exactly what I did! I tried to work my business in my spare time.

So if you are in the same boat, here are some steps that helped me focus on the tasks at hand:

1. Sit down with your calendar and mark off the time each day that you can work your business. I bought a planner at the Dollar Store and wrote down all the commitments I could think of: school, volunteering, doctor’s appointments, everything. I then took a highlighter and identified blocks of time that I could commit to working my business. I targeted time when both kids were in school but some days my working time was after they went to bed.

2. Keep a to-do list. When your “work time” starts, you don’t want to waste time deciding what to do. I have a list of items that I need to do daily (like post ads) and a list of items that change (like who to call, what to mail out). Try to make your to-do list specific. Instead of listing “contact fundraisers”, list “call 5 PTA groups about fundraising and list the groups”.

3. Take Action! Don’t spend too much time in the brainstorm mode. This is hard and some of you will think I am crazy because we need to brainstorm new ideas to build our business. When I first started out, I was so excited! My mind was churning with people to call, possible fundraisers, who would like to do a home party, what retail stores can I approach. I read all of the files on the available yahoo groups to see what others were doing. The problem was that I was spending most of my time brainstorming and not enough time acting. One day when my brain was on the verge of dumping everything out my ears, I sat down with a notebook and dumped everything on paper instead. Now I keep that idea book and spend time adding to it. I also try to spend more time in action.

4. Determine what work you can do with your kids around. I try to get my phone calls and computer work done while the kids aren’t around. When we sit down at the table to work on homework or crafts, I use the time to prepare mailers, samples, brochures, etc. I am amazed at the number of things that my kids like to do to help out! At 7 and 6 years, they love putting labels on brochures or stamps on mailers! (Side note: make sure they understand the difference between stamps and stickers! I have lost a few stamps that way!).

5. Let the housework go! Hard lesson for me to learn but the laundry, dishwasher and cleaning can all wait a few hours. In fact, I have found that my kids like to help sweep the floor, dust and fold laundry so why not make it fun when they are around (we will see how long that lasts!).

6. Use that answering machine! I found that answering one call from my Mother can chew up an hour of precious work time (sorry, Mom)! If you don’t have Caller ID and can’t screen your calls, try letting the caller know that you are working now and you will call back later.

Now that I have gained more focus on my business, I am seeing pleasant changes. My business is growing and I feel like I am getting much more accomplished in the time allotted. There are other benefits I am seeing. During my less focused days, I found that I spent lots of family time worrying about the business items that did not get done that day. Now, I feel more comfortable about the time that I am with my children because I am more focused on them as well. The other benefit? I can win 1 out of every 5 Nintendo games!
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Three Sources of Residual Income

mom — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 09:22:08 +0000

Residual income is income that a person earns again and again for something they do once. They can earn it through a home business, investments or direct marketing. Each method will provide the chance to earn a great income without putting in a lot of hours. The biggest benefit of residual income is that a person works hard to set it up and then it works hard providing them money on a regular basis.

Having a business is a way to make residual income where a person is in control. Unlike other methods, in a business a person sets up the system themselves. They design how it works and the payment method. They create the whole system, so they can tailor it to their needs. A business can be created by a person reselling products they buy or selling products they create. It usually requires a large upfront investment to get started in a business. It can also be difficult to make a business successful if a person is not well educated in business matters. This type of residual income is not immediate, either. A person will have to work very hard for a substantial amount of time before they can start to earn a continuous income through their business.

With a large amount of money up front a person can invest in stocks, real estate or a business. Very little work is required after a person figures out how to invest their money. A person will want to monitor their investment to make sure they are not losing money. The downside is the money required to start.

Direct marketing is the most popular way to earn residual income. Also referred to as multi level marketing or MLM, direct marketing is the process of selling and creating a sales team to build a residual income. When a person joins a MLM company that is already established, the company handles everything except the marketing, selling and signing up new team members. Little or no cost is required
to starting with a MLM program. Training is usually provided by the company. A website may also be available to you. There are a variety of MLM programs from which to choose, so a person is sure to find something that interests them. The biggest issues with MLM is that many people jump into it without really being passionate about the products, they simply focus on the recruiting side. A true business can not succeed, though, without both sales and recruiting. This is one of the best ways to earn a continuous income.

These are the most common ways people earn residual income. They are very diverse and each offers something great. All businesses will have a downside, but the persons job is to work through it. Success comes to those that work hard and are passionate about the business. Anyone should be able to earn a great residual income using one of these methods.
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Common Legal Concerns of Work at Home Moms (WAHM) in MLM

mom — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 13:29:32 +0000

Many WAHM or work at home moms earn a living through multilevel marketing. Most, if not all, have made MLM their bread and butter because of its essentially flexible working structure, the kind of profit it can generate, and its potential to become a source of residual income.

If you are interested in becoming a WAHM and having a career in MLM, do prepare to take care of the following legal concerns.

Making Your Home as a Place of Business

Having a career in MLM certainly doesn’t exempt you from paying taxes. If you wish to reduce the amount you’re going to pay, you should consider registering your home as your place of business.

Prerequisites for approval are fairly easy to comply with. Firstly, you’ll have to designate a particular room or area of your house that can be completely devoted to your work in MLM. Secondly, you have to supply proof that you do use it for work or at it is at least used when you are meeting up with clients.

Lastly, you need to itemize the expenses you incur at home because of your work. Even portions of your rent, mortgage, and utilities can be considered business expenses just as long you’ve got the documents and computations to prove it.

Change of Employment Status

You will have to inform the IRS that you are now self-employed rather than simply being employed in another company. The change will naturally put you on a different tax scale but don’t worry. It doesn’t mean you’ll have to pay more than usual.

In time and if your work in MLM expands, you could build your own network company and you’ll have to change your employment status once more. This time, however, you’ll be shifting from self-employment to being a business owner.

You’ll have to choose whether you wish to use sole proprietorship, partnership, or corporation as your accounting model. You’ll also have to choose whether or not to hire employees and when you do, that comes with more responsibilities as well.

No to Fraud

One reason why many people are leery of getting into network marketing is due to the numerous cases of fraud being reported and involving illegal network marketing companies. As an MLM affiliate yourself, you should be prepared to have all the legal and financial documents ready to prove to the legitimacy and absence of fraud in your company.

Additional Income

Most WAHM involved with MLM gradually develop other sources of income, most of which come from the Internet. If you are maintaining a website, it’s highly likely that you’ll soon get advertisers for your site and receive revenue from that. If so, you’ll have to learn how to properly compute your online earnings and include it in your ITR.

Online Security

Working long hours over the Internet places you at constant risk of being victimized by identity theft. As this is considered a perpetual concern, you should consider hiring prepaid legal services to provide yourself protection from identity theft. In most cases, prepaid legal services will also afford you various resources to help you recover and restore your identity at the least amount of time and effort.

And those are the common legal concerns of work at home moms or WAHM involved with MLM. With a bit of legal research and by availing the services of an attorney, all of these can be resolved quickly and easily.
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WAHM Pet Sitting Business

mom — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 10:46:19 +0000

If you have experience with animals why not start a business. Maybe you are good with dogs that could make a very good home business. You can also off course watch other animals for example pets in cages doesn’t need much experience to take care of if it’s not for a long time. Pet sitters offers a very important role to help pet owners keep there pets healthy and happy, this can be a very valuable service and can generate money.

How to get started

First you need to decide if this is something you would enjoy doing as a job, it means being a pet sitter every day. You should at least have some experience with animals even if you dont have to be for the job it’s good to tell pet owners that you are experienced with animals. Before you start a legal business you can try this by advertising in the local newspaper, to see if it is anybody that needs a pet sitter if there is you will find out if you would like to work with this.

Start your business by becoming legal. Obtaining a business license doesn’t cost much and will give you a professional edge when getting new clients. You’ll also be able to take advantage of many tax write-offs, including your costs for mileage to and from your customer’s homes and any necessary business supplies.

Getting clients for your pet sitting business may be the most difficult part of running the business. However, with a little effort you can build a client list rather quickly. The best way to get clients and assignments is by word of mouth. Offer to pet sit for neighbors and friends to help build your reputation. Once you’ve done a good job for them, they’ll tell their friends and so on.

You can also continue with ads in newspapers and online Internet just might be better than newspapers since so many people are online. Google’s Adwords is very good place to put out some ads you can target your area with Adwords so it is worth the money.

Once you get your pet sitting business started make sure you treat your customers with great respect, if they like your service they will return and hire you again.
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Child Care for WAHM’s

mom — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 07:54:14 +0000

Many stay at home moms think that if they start a daycare business from their home, they will earn some extra money and be able to stay at home with their kids. This type of business is very rewarding and has many perks, however, when you work for someone else taking care of kids verses having your own home daycare you will find that there are several different distinctions.

When Will You Start Seeing a Profit

Running a daycare from your own home is profitable, however, it can also take from six to eighteen months before Wahms will see sufficient income coming in.

There are several reasons for this: Each state has different childcare licensing requirements. Just to get your license to run a home daycare you may need to have your home inspected, attend special classes, and pass certification. During this time, you may want to consider unlicensed childcare for just a couple of children, so that you can start building your home business. Unlicensed childcare also has rules in each state.

Do take the appropriate steps to get licensed though, this way you can increase your credibility among the parents and it will make it easier for you to get the necessary funding for your daycare.

Start Up Costs for Your Business

You will likely have some toys and other child and baby items from your own children, there will be many other things you will need to purchase to make your home into a daycare. Some of the things you will need for the daycare children are; art supplies, tables and chairs, music CD’s, games and other activities.

The Time it Takes to Build Your List of Children

Lastly, it will take some time before you have a decent list of the children who will attend your daycare. In most towns there are several home daycares to choose from. If a parent finds one that they like, they usually stay there for the duration. It can be difficult to find new clients, especially if you do not take babies.

When you are licensed, it is definitely easier to get clients, but in the beginning you will need to do some networking with friends, parenting groups, people in your community and people at your church so that you can build a lucrative business.

Benefits of Having Your Own Home Daycare

There are a number of benefits to looking after other people’s children. Your own children are not without playmates, you will get access to some fun and stimulating programs only available to daycare business owners. For example, you can get a discount on most supplies. You could even be entitled to federal subsidies for diapers and food for your cares.

Read up on home daycares to find out if owning one is right for you. Take a visit to other home daycares; ask these moms how they are enjoyable and convenient their business is. Find out the regulations in your state concerning licensed and unlicensed daycare. You’ll know if owning a home daycare is right for you once you have done your homework.
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Walking the WAHM Tightrope – Balancing Work and Family

mom — Mon, 30 May 2011 05:30:54 +0000

No matter what your WAHM profession, one thing is definite- balancing work and family is the equivalent of walking a tightrope. It is imperative to make certain that you tread carefully or you may risk a sudden fall and lose everything. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. With careful planning, plenty of organization, and goal setting you can run your home and business smoothly and efficiently, and leave the tightrope walking to professionals in the circus.

Planning and goal settings are the best tools that work at home moms have at their disposals. It doesn’t matter how organized you are either. Some people are just naturally more organized than others, but even if you run your home and business with a carefree attitude, you can still take steps to bring order into your routine and you’ll see amazing results. Organization and goal setting will not rob your creativity, they will enhance it and ensures that you maximize your time and get the most out of both your family and work time.

You should set daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly goals. It is also a good idea to write your goals down and review them each night. You’d be amazed at how much you can accomplish once you begin taking inventory of your daily activities. When you delegate certain activities to certain time frames, you’ll also ensure that you have plenty of time left for family activities as well. Being a work from home mom has its advantages and disadvantages. Many moms can discover very quickly that it doesn’t take long for the pressures and stress of running both work and family from the same location can have negative consequences. Organization is the best way to ensure that you keep your business and family time separate and watch both grow and thrive.

You’ll find that keeping your work and family life separate is the best policy for ensuring that you remain professional while having the ability to put the role of entrepreneur on the back burner when it is time to spend time as a mother and wife. You’ll also need to realize that no matter how strenuous your day is your children are not interested in you as a business professional. When you are spending time with your children, they are only interested in mom. When you work outside of the home it may be easier to turn off the business persona and step into the mothering role, but you may find this more difficult when working from home.

Keeping your business limited to your office can help tremendously. For example, if you need to take a business call, keep it limited to your office, don’t take business calls in your kitchen or other rooms of the house where your children are. You’ll also find that if you designate times for working when your children are either sleeping or are being cared for by other people, you will get more accomplished. Learning how to separate your business from your family is the best way to ensure that you can handle the responsibilities of being a work from home mom efficiently.
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Avoiding Distractions as a Work at Home Mom

mom — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 21:46:06 +0000

Mom’s who work at home may be plagued with distractions. They probably have the most distractions than anyone in the work force. The kids that are home that mom is taking care of is a big distraction by itself, but when you add family and friends stopping in or the phone ringing to the mix, very little work may get accomplished. This may make it very difficult to get caught up and stay caught up.

There are many work at home opportunities for moms so they can stay home and take care of their children while still bringing in an income for the family. Most of the work at home opportunities allow moms to make their own hours or schedule as long as any work that has a deadline is in on time. Having a relaxed dress code is a great advantage also. When at home with the children moms would rather be comfortably dressed.

Before the internet there were the product assembly at home or stuffing envelopes at home opportunities. A lot of these ended up being either a scam or unrealistic for moms who stay home. To assemble products at home requires assembling a lot of them to earn any kind of income. Probably unrealistic for the moms who don’t have a lot of free time on their hands. Now a mom has to decide which work at home opportunity is worthy of her time and effort.

It would be ideal for moms who stay home to have a large network of other moms who also stay home and earn an income. They can exchange ideas for working efficiently while taking care of the kids. A group like this can also create new businesses based on the needs of the group. They can’t be the only moms in this situation, so coming up with work at home opportunities for other moms is something they can work on together. They can research and find the legitimate opportunities and help others fulfill their needs for working at home.

Another advantage of having a large network of other moms is they can help each other out when needed. If a mom is falling behind because of family issues, another mom can help her get the job done. They can swap favors and if they live close they can exchange babysitting or get out of the house for a while to work at a nearby library or café. Moms should not feel alone when trying to earn an income while staying home with the children.

Having a network of other moms who work at home can also be useful when trying to find a work at home business opportunity. They can share information about the best opportunities that offer the best income potential and also the ones that are fraudulent. They can protect each other from falling for scams and suffering the consequences. Also sharing each others success can motivate others to strive for a better life that they deserve.
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3 Proven Work From Home Sites

mom — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 07:43:44 +0000

In February of 2007 I decided to Work from Home. I have researched many different sites out there, based on what they pay, what you have to do, and their reputation, and I have found 3 different sites that I really like working with.

Associated Content: Here you can submit your own original content either video or articles, and be paid upfront for it. The range is anywhere from $3.00 to $20.00. They also have a page view bonus, every time you get a 1000 page views you will earn an extra $1.50. There are AC Content Producers earning an extra $300 a month just off of the page view bonus, and that does not include the upfront payments. If you like producing video and writing articles you can make a lot of money through Associated Content.

CashCrate: Is the best GPT Site out there. They will pay you to take surveys, do free offers, submit your e-mail and zip information. They are the only GPT Site that takes 25% of the completed offers you do and gives you 75%. Many GPT Sites split the amount with you. CashCrate also has the highest percentage for referral earnings. If you like GPT Sites or maybe you might be thinking about trying one. I would highly recommend CashCrate. Quite a few people have earned thousands of dollars in month through them.

ExpoTV: They are a little like Associated Content, but they only accept video reviews. You can earn up to $10 per video they have set amounts on their web-site. For example if you do a video of a nationally sold car seat with you in video giving your review-if it is accepted you will make $10. I use my Cyber Shot Digital camera for both ExpoTV and Associated Content videos. A digital camera works just fine. For everyone that watches your videos you will earn $.01. This can really add up if you like producing videos.

To learn more about these programs and to sign up for them visit my Making Ends Meet [http://www.kellyfleming.net] blog.
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