You’ve weighed every pro and con, then decided that becoming a working stay at home mom is the best option for you and your family. That’s a great decision to make, but you need to realize that starting a business from home has its own set of pros and cons as well and that many mistakes can be made. In this blog, you’ll find a few mistakes that you want to avoid when starting your own home business as a stay at home mom.
Table of Contents
Trusting Everyone
Nine times out of ten, from shipping vendors to the post office, you’ve never had to deal with them in your normal 9to5 job. That’s something that the owner did. Well, now you’re the owner and have to deal with everything from packing your product to finding the right way to ship it on your own. If you aren’t confident in the shipping process, check out Shipware 3pl consulting services or other experts like Red Stag. For information about 3PL and the benefits of outsourcing, learn more here. Your biggest mistake could be trusting vendors to do the right thing. Check your invoices, then check them again, and then get help if something doesn’t look right.
Spending too Much Time at Home
While you’ve decided to work from home because you want to be there for your family, spending too much time at home can have a negative effect. The biggest complaint of most people who work from home is that they get lonely. Being lonely and staring at the same four walls all day, every day, can stifle your creativity and make you restless, which means you can’t settle to work. Whether it’s working at the local coffee shop once a week or meeting colleagues for lunch, avoid staying home all the time if you want your new home business to be a success.
Having a 24/7 Work Schedule
When you first start working from home and open the door to that shiny new home office, it’s easy to work, work, and work some more. So it’s not long before you find yourself working what seems like a 24/7 work schedule, and that shiny new home office starts to feel more like a prison. What you need to do is sit down and write up a schedule that you will stick with for each workday. Using tools like a mind map to leave thoughts and ideas, some centralized can help you finish your set tasks without throwing new ideas and inspiration away forever. When that schedule is done, you close the door to the office and don’t open it again until the next workday begins.
One word of advice: you can’t create a schedule that follows what someone else is doing, because that schedule might not work for you. Maybe you work better at night, while your neighbor down the street is done with work and onto something else by noon. Create a work schedule that works best for you and your family and stick to that one instead.
Allowing Interruptions During the Workday
The quickest path to blowing your workday is allowing interruptions in your schedule. Without a boss hovering over your shoulder, it’s easy to take quick phone calls from family and friends that turn into hour-long conversations. By the time you hang up, not only is your schedule shot for the day, but your desire to get that work done is gone as well. Make it clear when you start your home business that you have set work hours, and phone calls or visits have to be after you’ve finished working for the day, no exceptions.
These are only a few of the mistakes that you’ll want to avoid when you start your own home business as a stay at home mom. While it may seem a bit overwhelming now, once you get on a schedule and learn the ropes, you’ll be ready to soar.
Featured Image Vinzent Weinbeer by Pixabay
