Being a work at home mom makes you “different.” You don’t exactly fit in with the other stay at home moms who can concentrate full time on raising their children.
But you don’t really fit in with the work force either. You’ll find a lot of common ground with other entrepreneurs, but you’ll also find yourself often thinking “but my business doesn’t work that way because of my kid commitments.”
As a work from home mom, you really have the best of both worlds. A flexible schedule that allows you to be with your children, and the ability to generate an income that obviously benefits your family.
But getting to the point where everything is humming along nicely, where you’ve got your schedule down, you don’t feel like you always need to be working, and you’re actually generating a consistent income, can be tricky.
So tricky in fact, that it’s common for moms to quit before they get there.
How do you beat the odds and become a successful work from home mom?
Here are three things that have made a positive difference to others in your shoes.
1. Never Compare Yourself to Other Entrepreneurs
One thing you’ll never find a shortage of online is entrepreneurs talking about themselves and giving advice.
Whether it’s in paid or free courses, groups and forums, or on their personal social media, every entrepreneur has a story to tell.
As you’re building your business, you’ll be hungry for this advice, especially from those who’ve created that magical six figure business.
Why reinvent the wheel if there’s someone willing to give you a perfectly good readymade wheel, right?
The problem for work at home moms is, that perfectly good wheel often doesn’t fit our car.
And it’s easy to get discouraged when you hear stories about how fast others are making money, how much money they’re making, or how they’re grinding 16 hours a day to get their business in profit.
When you hear other entrepreneurs’ stories, it can make you feel like, “I can never do this because . . . “ followed by a flood of reasons that have to do with your family, your availability, and your skills.
The fact is, as a work at home mom, it may take you longer to find “success” than it takes those who aren’t raising children while building a business.
But who cares?
The time is going to pass anyway. So whether you’ve built something that brings in real, consistent money next month or next year is pretty irrelevant. Whenever you get there, it’s going to be worth the wait and the effort.
And the person who has 16 hours a day to put into her business will likely get there faster than you. That’s okay.
Do you really want to spend 16 hours a day working, or would you rather spend a good chunk of that time with your kids?
The other thing you have to keep top of mind as you're soaking in all this information online is that people are just showing you their highlight reel when they post on their social media or brag about their success in groups and forums.
Sadly, there are a lot of alleged six figure entrepreneurs who are broke, and many who simply leave out how hard and for how many years they struggled before they did actually start making consistent money.
So never let anyone else’s story make you doubt your own abilities and potential.
2. Find a Community Where You Feel Comfortable
Because you’ll often be feeling different from the other entrepreneurs you encounter out there, being a work at home mom can be very isolating.
Any type of online entrepreneurship is by nature a bit lonely. Until you build up a team, it’s just you, wearing every hat in your business and often having no one in the real world who understands or supports what you’re doing.
So when you’re an entrepreneur who feels different from even the other entrepreneurs, it’s easy to start thinking you’re completely on your own.
This is a huge mistake. No one can do this alone.
It’s essential that you find a community where you feel understood and supported.
These days, the most common place for those communities are free or paid Facebook groups.
But it doesn’t matter where your community’s home is, although it will almost certainly be online as it will consist of people all over the country or even the world.
Like other things in your business, finding your community won’t happen overnight.
The best way to figure out where you want to land is to get involved on social media and start following different people and groups until you find a place that feels good.
And this doesn’t have to be a group of all stay at home moms. In fact, it probably won’t be.
More importantly, the group will be made up of people who are real and honest about their journey, and who are truly interested in giving you advice and support rather than tooting their own horn or selling you into their own program.
3. Make a Realistic Plan and Share It
One of the big things that trips up work at home moms is they never find time to get their business off the ground. They may remain in the start up stage for years before finally declaring, “I just don’t have time,” and giving up.
This doesn’t have to happen.
Again, some of the problem here stems from comparing ourselves to others and thinking if we can’t move as fast as someone else, it’s not worth moving at all.
As a work from home mom, you’ll have to learn to compare your expectations to your output. In other words, figure out what you can do, and then check yourself to make sure you’re doing it.
Everyone should have a business plan or business goals, but it’s 110% crucial for work from home moms.
Make a 90 day plan, and then work backwards and figure out what you need to be doing each month, each week, and each day to get there. For specific help on making your plan, The 12 Week Year by Brian Moran is an excellent resource.
Share your plan with your family. It will help keep you accountable and make them understanding if there are times you need to work and they have other ideas.
“You do want that trip to Disney World next year, don’t you?” can quickly buy you an hour of silence from the kids while you finish working!
How Kids Party Characters Can Help
At KidsPartyCharacters.com, we are obviously your go-to source for planning your child’s next party.
We’re also an excellent resource for stay at home moms looking to start their own business. KidsPartyCharacters.com owner Cheryl Jacobs is a mom and the owner of three successful businesses.
Cheryl understands your joys and your struggles and has a passion for mentoring new or struggling entrepreneurs.
In an effort to considerably reduce the learning curve for entrepreneurs, Cheryl has decided to make a limited number of memberships available at KidsPartyCharacters.com.
With membership, you get your very own Kids Party Characters business, which includes an exclusive territory in which to book parties, the right to use our 200 plus costumes, access to our casting director and acting coach, and mentorship, training, and support from Cheryl herself and the KidsPartyCharacters.com team.
If you’re curious about starting your own business, whether you’re looking for part-time fun money or a six figure empire, schedule a no-pressure chat with Cheryl right here and she’ll talk you through whether a KidsPartyCharacters.com membership might be the right opportunity for you.
Also be sure to connect with us on Facebook to keep up with how much fun we have turning children’s parties into magic at KidsPartyCharacters.com.
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