Making Money When You Are Already Too Busy

These days, many of us need to find ways to make some extra money. Figuring out how to fit that in when we already have families and jobs (in the home or outside of it) to fulfill  can be tough. How do we find the time to make money when we are already so busy? Combining Jobs When I got a call last week asking if I would babysit for our church’s Women’s Bible Study that takes place one morning a week I readily agreed. While the money isn’t much, it allowed me to take my youngest child with me, … Continue reading

Combining Working at Home With Homeschooling

Some parents choose to work from home so that they can homeschool their children. I did not initially know whether we would be homeschooling when I decided to open my home based businesses after the birth of our first son. It was always a possibility, and now that it is time for him to go to preschool, I have decided that that is what we will do, at least as far as preschool is concerned. Preschool in my local area is fairly expensive, and there are not a lot of choices. Since I am at home with our baby anyways, and … Continue reading

Learning to Say No

I typically don’t have a problem saying no to people. I guess that’s because I am a pretty organized, detailed person who likes plans, schedules and routines. So if something is going to distract me from what I need to, I can generally say no to it. However, what I have noticed recently is that where I do struggle to say no is when something is related to my line of work. Once it gets out there that you are a professional in some field, you may suddenly find others in need of advice or help. This has happened to … Continue reading

Laboring on Labor Day

So did you get to enjoy having off on Labor Day? Not me…I was laboring. In fact, I was squeezing in two days worth of work so my schedule could be cleared for Tuesday. My husband and I spent the day together in celebration of our 20th wedding anniversary. But I was okay with laboring on Labor Day. My husband had to work anyway, so it wasn’t that big of a deal. I can always arrange to have a day off during the week by doing that day’s work over the weekend, instead. But I really like to try and … Continue reading

Combating Isolation When You Work from Home

If there is one detriment to running a home business it is isolation. You can easily find yourself isolated from the world around you. I have no co-workers to talk to (or contend with). I don’t really have a “boss.” I have an editor but she works several states away so our conversations take place through email. And now that my children are back in school, the house can become eerily quiet. It is as if I am cut off from the rest of the world. Now some people (myself included) thrive on working independently. Although this can be a … Continue reading

Working from Home Doesn’t Mean I Have It Easy

Someone recently posted on their Facebook status that they had come to the conclusion women who have never held a full-time job while raising children have no clue what its like. Apparently something had rubbed her the wrong way. But quite honestly, I know that feeling of being rubbed the wrong way when it comes to my working at home and raising children. I could say the same thing, “Women who have never had to work at home while raising children have no clue what its like.” Working at home is a blessing, don’t get me wrong. But I continue … Continue reading

Your Home Business Is Part of Your Family

Like it or not, when you decide to run a home business it is not just about you. It becomes a part of your family. Part of the reason is that you can’t separate it from your family as much as you can a job that you go to outside of the home. It is there in front of everyone. It is accessible. It may even affect your family, good and bad. So you have to be very careful that your home business never becomes a replacement for time spent with family or in any way becomes more important than … Continue reading

Challenges in Working from Home with Teenagers

Many people who operate home businesses are parents. In fact, this is oftentimes the main reason a person decides to work from home, so they can be available to their children. I didn’t get my start in working from home until my children were older, so I have never had to deal with running a home business with small children. I completely understand that the dynamics to that type of setup will be very different. Many a blog has been written on the challenges of working from home with small children. So it might be assumed that if your children … Continue reading

A List of Home Business Ideas

In this blog I am going to just focus on a wide variety of ideas for starting up a home business. Remember that a home business doesn’t necessarily have to be something you do full-time. In fact, it’s probably best to start off on a part-time basis and see where it leads. So here is a list of home business ideas: Accountant Tax Preparer Life Coach Professional Organizer Wedding Planner Party/Event Planner Freelance Writer Bed and Breakfast Childcare Website Designer Resume Writer Proofreader Graphic Designer Financial Planner Housecleaning Service Dog Sitter/Walker Desktop Publishing Medical Transcriptionist Caterer Lawn care/Landscaping Car Restoration … Continue reading

What It’s Like to Be a Woman with a Home-Based Business in Pakistan

In doing some research for something completely different, I ran across an article that I couldn’t stop reading. It’s an online news source for the country of Pakistan and the article was about women who work from home. According to this article, 65% of women who work in Pakistan do it from their home. However they have no protection from labor laws, no rights to minimum wage, and no Social Security benefits. They basically have nothing. Most of the work they do is piece work, which they make very little money doing and are sometimes at risk of being exposed … Continue reading