I never thought of myself as a stay-at-home mom. I liked the direction my career was going and always thought that I would work outside the home, even after my children were born. And that’s exactly what happened . . . until my son Sean was 3 years old. That’s when little sister Melissa joined her big brother Sean.
After the birth of Melissa, my husband and I decided that with the stress of both of us working full time, never spending any time with our children, and the rising cost of daycare, it was time for me to come home. The question was, “Is working from home really a viable option?” Would it be possible for me to be a stay-at-home mom to my children, and have an income from a job that I enjoy and that is beneficial to our family, both personally and financially?

And so I began my search. We’ve all seen offers promising us loads of easy money with minimal investments of time and capital. Unfortunately, we don’t as often seem to personally know anyone who has succeeded at these schemes. No, the fact is, that you really can’t get something for nothing. However, that doesn’t mean that working from home will not work. In fact, we’re seeing trends of more and more people choosing to work from home.

The benefits of working from home are clear: ability to have quality family time, to be available for your children and spouse, the flexibility to arrange and re-arrange schedules, not to mention commuting and daycare cost savings. There are many benefits of having your own business, the key is to find something that you are passionate about. I have found a company that I believe in and stand behind.

So how do people do this successfully? According to a 2004 report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics*, there are nearly seven million people in the United States who are currently self-employed and are successfully working from home. What is their secret? The answer is setting goals and being disciplined.

Working from home has its challenges. When you work for yourself, the term “self-motivation” takes on a whole new meaning. Suddenly you are both boss and employee. There is no supervisor handing out projects or offering reviews. It is up to you to see the work, and to make sure it gets finished. On the other hand, you never leave your office. The computer and the phone are always right there, calling you to just finish “one more thing.” The trick is to find balance. For many people, that means setting up “office hours” and sticking to them. If you decide you will work from 8am until noon, Monday through Friday, that means that you sit down and begin work at 8am and when the clock strikes noon, you stop, knowing that you will continue again tomorrow at 8am. For other people a less rigid schedule may be a better choice, where they discipline themselves to work a set number of hours each day, but are not as concerned about when they work those hours. The common denominator is that in each case, a successful work-at-home story begins with work. Just like a traditional job, you must work to be successful.

And, working from home offers its own challenges to office hours as well. You have other family commitments that require attention. Children need lunches, help with projects, etc. Not to mention friends and family who see you at home so think you will always be available for them. It takes discipline to continue to work the hours necessary.

The other secret of success…….setting goals. It is extremely important to have a specific, realistic, measurable goal, and then work to achieve it. In some industries, these goals take the form of deadlines, in others it’s sales quotas. Sometimes, it comes down to a personal goal you are working to achieve. The important thing is to continue to work toward that goal and keep going until you achieve it. This is not the time for New Year’s Resolutions that are tossed aside within a few weeks. Your goal must be something specific you are working toward, and there must be a reward for achieving it. Sometimes that reward is money (payment), other times it might be as simple as splurging on something special or taking a day off.

Soon you’ll find the benefits of being able to integrate both personal and professional goals while working from home. For example, after the birth of my children, I was determined to lose the weight I gained during pregnancy. While I worked a 9-5 job, I did not have the time or energy to focus on this goal. However, within the last six months, I have reached my objective. Working from home gave me both the motivation, and the time to achieve what I set out to do. I’ve learned both discipline in time management as well as enjoying the flexibility and extra free time provided by working from home to work out and focus on our eating habits as a family.

Of course, the most important key to being a success is making the commitment and then taking the next step to just do it. It is always scary to take the first step on a new adventure, but the rewards can far outweigh the risks. And, before long you’ll find that you really are making money from home. You have time for your children and their needs, while still bringing in a paycheck. And, you are growing and developing both personally and professionally as you continue to grow a business where you are the boss.

Since starting my own business, my family’s lives have changed. We spend quality time together as a family, and my husband and I are growing our relationship because of the time that we spend together as a couple. We are focused on our health and are teaching our children the importance of a healthy diet and exercise. And, I have the ability to show other career-oriented moms that they can have a professional career where they can not only contribute financially, but also be home with their children and enjoy the important things in life. It is not always about money, but building relationships and helping others. So the answer is an unqualified, yes. Working from home is a very realistic and viable option, and could be the secret to improving the quality of your life along with the lives of those around you.

* “Work at Home in 2004” released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. http://www.bls.gov/cps

Authored by: Barbara Murtaugh. Barbara is an independent consultant with Work at Home United where she is dedicated to improving the lives of those around her by teaching them about non-toxic (green) products and mentoring others who want to work from home. She can be reached through her website at Loving Work From Home.

I found some great info over at the Internet Marketing Sweetie Blog by Alice Seba. I’d summarize here, but she did such a nice job cutting to the chase it would be just as fast to give her blog a quick visit. How to Get Blog Traffic – 11 Steps to Growing Readership
You’ll also find some invaluable advise on affiliate marketing that can go a long way towards making your addiction to blogging pay for itself or perhaps even some extra gas money (albeit not much).

Affiliate Marketing Sweetie

Blog on!

Nicole Pauling is a “muralist” and she paints murals in York PA and the surrounding area. Her business, Artistic Expression Murals, brightens up rooms, swimming pools (one of only two in the U.S.!), offices, businesses, and windows. Nicole is a mom and entrepreneur and like most of us stays very busy day-to-day.

One day her 5 year old daughter, Katrina, came home with a box of rocks and asked her to sell them for her so that she could buy food for those who needed it. Nicole said, “Honey, no one will buy plain rocks.” Katrina replied, “That’s ok. Then I’ll paint them.” And that’s what she did. Since then she has collected almost $150 and 300 food items to donate locally in York, PA!

Read that again!

This little girl had learned that if you want to raise money for something that you can do so by creating something and selling it to people who wanted what you created. She also has learned that the oft-heard “that won’t work” shouldn’t deter you from trying! When Nicole said no one would buy plain rocks, she didn’t take it as a reason to give up, but rather as a reason to think of what she had to do to make it work! She painted them!!

This lil’ entrepreneur and world-changer has raised hundreds of dollars to buy food for people who can’t afford to feed themselves enough. She’s a shining star that can teach all of us some lessons.

For more information about this lil’ superstar check out this article in their local newspaper, The York Daily Record: Kindergarten girl paints rocks to feed the hungry

Sadly, every year hundreds of children die due to drownings and from choking. This video can decrease these numbers drastically. It’s a wonderful resource for parents and the company is now marketing the video as a school fundraiser to parent-teacher associations in local school districts.

To learn more about Kristin’s potentially life-saving video visit her Website: How to Save a Child

Other useful sites worth a visit:

First Aid Tips for Families

First Aid for Children

Child CPR

Kids Meal Deals offers parents a searchable database of family and budget-friendly restaurants. Restaurants can be found by zip code, food type (coming soon), or name. The resource is easy to use and can be especially helpful when planning a Summer vacation or road trip to unfamiliar territory.

Dana realizes she can’t bring in restaurants that want to promote their locations by herself so she developed a recruiter program for stay at home moms and dads. Basically she’s looking for restaurants to subscribe to a monthly listing in Kids Meal Deals database for a reasonable fee. She needs help getting the word out to restaurants outside of her Columbus Ohio area. In return for bringing in a new restaurant you’ll receive a $50 reward and immense appreciation that only a stay-at-home mom can describe. For more information on this cause visit: Kids Meal Deals Recruiters.

We wish Dana and her family much success in their venture!

But, in the event you are looking for ways to earn a little extra like so many of us with websites here’s a little information about an advertising network that I really like:

They call themselves Project Wonderful and their system really is pretty wonderful. It’s the easiest ad network provider that I’ve ever used as a publisher (website owner) and it’s also the easiest from the advertisers perspective. It only takes a few minutes to get setup (adding their ad code to your site) and within minutes prospective advertisers will begin submitting their READY-TO-RUN banner ads to you for approval. If you’re ok with the ad you click a link and the ad will begin running almost immediately.

What’s really cool is the advertisers bid for placement on your site so as more advertisers line up the more they’ll bid. This competition is what I like the most about their business model. Of course it isn’t a get rich quick scheme, especially for those of us who have small websites, but as the sites grow in traffic and the ad network grows in popularity and numbers of registered advertisers, the bids will increase without the need to create a media kit, change pricing, or do anything other than tend to the site and approve ads.

It’s been a few days since I got started and the ads are generating 49 cents a day right now and rising all the time. It’s not much, but I really do believe in this and I’m already bringing in more then the Google ads were fetching for me.

You can find ad spots here on WAHM Blog and on these sites:

moms dot com and moms dot com directory

dads dot com and dads dot com directory

moms TV and dads TV

Check it out for yourself!

You can find more about them here: Project Wonderful Ad Network

To see their system in action check out these Websites:

We just added a 468×60 banner ad slot to this site! Check out the upper right-hand side of the site.

Momz.com and the moms web directory

Momz Top Websites for Moms

Dadz.com and the dads web directory

Bold Food

WAHM Shopping Mall

WAHM Break Cafe Top 100 Websites for WAHMS

Check it out and be sure to take advantage of the free banner ad opportunities on our sites before the deeper pockets arrive and outbid you.

Elance recently posted a series of 3 mom articles about mompreneurs that utilize Elance to keep business rolling in. The most recent article was about Sue Kristoff who started her business, The Kristoff Group LLC, after she had a couple of children and decided to trade in her daily commute and co-workers for her family. Her freelance technical writing business is doing well and she spends about 10 hours a week serving clients right now while her kids are young. Sounds like a great plan to me!

The other two articles offer glimpses into two other moms that have decided to take control over their time and destiny. They can be found on the Elance blog here:

Successful Recipe for Mompreneurs and How Lisa uses Elance

We salute these moms who are living the WAHM dream.

A WAHMs Blog

Adventures of a WAHM

Ami-Chan.net

April’s Daily Recipes

Bucket O’ Bulletz

Butterflies are Free

Cityslicker Mom

Deb’s Lounge

Diary of a WAHM

Duong Nguyen’s Blog – Sarah84

Elegant Naturals

ExPat Mom

Hippie Spelunker

Home Biz Blogger

Hounies-Haven

Inner Dialogues

Internet Marketing for Mommies

Lattegirl Does Civilization

Marking A Happy Life

Mommy, Inc.

Momz.com

Musings From Me

My Single Mom Life

My Thoughts and Ramblings

Plain Book of Homeschooling

Randomly Chaotic and Frequently Mundance

Shoppingmum’s Home Office

Skeet’s Stuff

Sophistishe.org

The Shopping Duck

WAHM Blog

Work At Home Musings