One of the emails I receive time and again is from moms who want to
find a way to earn money from home. While I don’t consider myself to be
a WAHM (work-at-home-mom) expert, I have worked from home for five
years now and have learned a lot along the way. This series is for
those of you who are contemplating working from home, those of you who
think you’d really love to work from home, and those of you who just
wonder what working from home involves.
I’ve read a lot of books and articles over the years on the subject
of working from home and find that often they are somewhat unrealistic. This series will not
be about get-rich-quick schemes (I hope you know by now that there is
no such thing!), how to work for one hour a week and make $100,000 a
year (that’s also a fairy tale!), or how making money from home is a
simple, easy thing.
What I will aim to share with you is my personal journey in
becoming a WAHM, what things have and haven’t worked for me, what I
wish someone had told me when I was first contemplating starting a
business from home, and how you, too, can become a WAHM.
As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’m currently making a good income
from home–last year, I made the equivalent of a good part-time job and
this year, if things continue to go the way they are going, I will
likely double that figure. I’m doing the majority of my work in the
early morning hours and during my girls’ afternoon quiet time/naptime
and am thrilled to have the opportunity to bring in a good income while
not neglecting my most important priorities–that of being a wife and
mom.
I’m sure many moms could look at me and want what I have–the
ability to make a good income while staying at home, choosing my own
hours, and taking care of my husband, home, and family first. I can
take a day off (or even a few days off!) whenever I like and
the money continues to come in at the same rate because of the many
multiple streams of income I’ve set in place.
All this might sound really cool (and it is!) but what most people
often don’t add into this equation are the countless hours, days,
weeks, months, and even years that I spent building my online earnings up to the point they are at. I
do not care to recall all the failed income-earning things I’ve tried
nor the incredibly naive mistakes I’ve made. You don’t want to know
about the sleep I’ve missed or the outside opportunities I’ve had to
say “no” to in order to stay focused at keep at it–even when the going
got tough.
The effort has paid off and I’m now reaping the fruits of my labors
(though I’m still making lots of mistakes and I’m sure I’ll continue to
do so until the day I die!), but I won’t ever forget the struggles I
had to go through to get me where I’m at or the mountains I’ve had to
climb along the way.
I am a firm believer that, with God’s blessings and lots of hard work, anyone can successfully work from home. However, I will be the first to tell you that working from home is just that–work.
I’m by nature a positive person but I won’t sugar-coat the truth when
it comes to working from home: if you are not prepared to put in lots
and lots and lots of time and effort, working from home won’t work for you.
So, before you even consider working from home, I cannot stress how important it is that you are prepared for the long-haul. It often takes months or even years
to see results and steady, reliable income. If you stick with it,
though, it will eventually pay off–and likely it could pay off beyond
your wildest imaginations!
Just for fun: How many of you currently work from home? Tell us a little about what you do and what has and hasn’t worked for you.
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Hi:
I’m so glad you posted this because I do think that sometimes people get the notion that working at home isn’t really working. But I’ve found that being self-employed is much more demanding than any jobs I’ve had, and I put in a lot of hours.
I’m a writer by trade and that means I make my income doing a lot of things. I write business books — just signed a contract for a new one –, handle public relations for several companies and other authors, freelance for some magazines and write white papers and Web content for companies and organizations. And I do it all from home and at an office that I share with several other self-employed women.
My income fluctuates greatly because of what I do, but I usually earn equal to what my husband earns at his full-time marketing job. (And in some years, my salary has surpassed his.)
I find working for myself, raising a child and running a household to be a tremendous balancing act and at times all the plates crash to the ground! My mom comes twice a week to spend time with her grandson, and I squeeze as much work as possible into that time. The reality, though, is that I end up working a lot at night and staying up late.
(During the school year, I get two more mornings a week to work while my son is at preschool. But in the summer, it’s those two days, nights and naptimes.)
Occasionally, I wish I could just scrap my job, but I know that I would missing the work, the writing and the pride I get from writing books and producing copy for my clients. So, I plug along.
In my four years working at home (two of then as a mom), I’ve learned some important lessons:
– Don’t try to do everything. I don’t send my son to daycare, as so many working moms do, so I have a housekeeper come in occasionally to help me out. But I still do plenty of laundry and other chores DAILY.
– Set aside work time and family time. And don’t mix the two. I get a lot more work done when I’m not trying to do it while my son is awake. And I don’t enjoy it when work encroaches on family time.
– You can hire a babysitter even if you’re going to be at home. If I get really swamped, I might call a sitter I know and have her come in a few hours while I hole up in my home office. Jackson loves having a new companion, and I get an incredible amount of work done during these marathon sessions.
– Learn to say no. Sometimes, you can’t take on another project no matter how good the money. Just say no.
– Be organized. As a WAHM, your time will be shorter than someone who has a full-time job. But that doesn’t mean you can’t accomplish as much (or more) as someone who goes to an office every day. You simply have to plan out your workday and work as efficiently as possible. If someone calls when I’m working, I won’t take the call. Or I’ll hang up quickly — even if it’s my husband. I simply say, sorry honey, I’m working, and he understands.
I have been a WAHW then a WAHM when I had my son 1 1/2 years ago since 2004. I worked in marketing in corporate america and started selling craft supplies on eBay just for fun (I am an avid crafter and knitter.) My business grew and then I had to make a choice between working for The Firm or for myself. It was a pretty easy choice. I still sell on eBay, but my primary business is http://www.supercrafty.com
I enhanced my income with freelance work for a couple of years while my business got off the ground. While I don’t make a ton of money doing what I do, it’s a great setup. I work while my son naps and in the morning before my husband goes to work. Also, usually I work at least one full weekend day while my husband plays with our son.
I agree with commenter Jen, that you need to be a self-starter, organized, motivated, focused and you absolutely cannot procrastinate. My workaholic nature has helped me greatly in my life as a WAH entrepreneur.
Thank you for this series. I have been so blessed with a Great part time job that lets me work 15 hrs a week. Since my son goes to school across the street from my job I do not lose any time with him (I only work the school year). However, I would like to be home full time. I will work for the next school year but would love to take that year to build up something at home and make that transition. Thanks for the help.
I currently work from home as a travel agent. I have been in the travel business for 10+ years but since I have 2 children now I have been able to work out incredible deal with my employer, thanks to God, that I still earn a full salary. And it’s been an incredible blessing the last 8 months or so but I am now working toward cutting back my responsible hours so I can spend more time focused on my family.
I look forward to hearing how you have been able to earn income from home and hope your tips will help me and my family.
This will be the 3rd year we have hosted a foreign exchange student who attends the school DH teaches at. I consider this my job (although I will also be teaching one day a week at a home school co-op) as it requires extra cooking, cleaning, laundry, errands, and time. The stipend the student pays on top of DH’s salary is enough to make ends meet so that I can stay home with our children.
My mother taught me to sew when I was a teenager. After 25 years teaching school I was ready for a change. When I retired, I started sewing for friends. Word of mouth led to a steady business. Now I am at the point that I have to turn some jobs away because I don’t want a full time job! I can set my own hours around my family and take vacation whenever I want to!
Ok…so I am currently doing the tortoise to enable me to work from home. I have started designing and sewing t-shirts similar to some I have found at really neat UK stores…so there you go, if you feel like it, PLEASE visit!
http://www.tamarascustomtshirts.wordpress.com
Up until October 07 I was working at home making good money updating a computer system from home for a medium size answering service. I honestly loved my job, because I loved the people I worked with and what I did. I could set my own hours and work at my pace. Then the company grew and within a few months it grew again. The company was 24 hours a day and because it had gotten so big I needed to clean the system 2-3 times a night. It got to be a real pain. The money was good, but they began to feel like they could call on me night and day because I was at home. My husband and I fought … because my way to make money at home was causing phone calls during dinner, or when we were out. Family time was me on the couch with my laptop working while everyone else watched the movie. Finally in October my DH said enough. The money was very helpful, but my family needed me more. Yes I new this, but got the feeling the company could not survive with out me…ha ha. I was so silly. If you can find a job that you can truely manage without ever missing a family moment because of it I say go for it…every little bit counts, but family needs to come first over money any day!! I am sorry to go on so much, but I had a lot to say!! :O) I truely enjoy your site keep it up!
I haven’t figured out a work from home job yet, but I do some substitute work at my previous job. It works great for me (I only work when hubby can be home with our daughter) and it works great for them (I’m already trained, they get my at my normal pay rate, but they aren’t paying in for benefits, medical, etc.).
It’s been win-win for our family and for the library where I used to work. Still, I would like to explore writing from home. How do y’all find assignments? How do you get started with it?
I always wanted to be a stay at home mom, but the reality didn’t come until shortly before my second child was born. We were finally to the point where we could do it financially – almost.
I spent hours, night after night, researching and pouring over the internet, getting ideas, learning how to recognize scams and finding work-at-home possibilities. We needed to supplement my husband’s income with a couple of hundred dollars.
I finally found a few options. I wanted to find something that was flexible, first and foremost, and something that could be done with my kids at home. I landed on online tutoring and general transcription. I did both for a while, but dropped tutoring and stuck with transcription because I could make so much more money.
I have been doing general transcription for a year and a half now. It’s great because I didn’t have to put up any money to be formally “trained.” I can type very quickly and I understand English, so I didn’t have to learn any terminology that comes with other forms of transcription.
I work during naptimes or at night when the kids are in bed, as many (or as few) nights of the week as I want. The money is good and you can’t beat the flexibility! I am so thankful to have found something to do from home that allows me to stay at home with my 2 children and still earn income.
I’m not a mom yet but I have been working on completing my coursework to become a medical transcriptionist (from an accredited school not one of the schools that advertises on late night tv and doesn’t prepare you correctly) and work from home in the future. I like that it will give me the option to be home once we have kids but I will have enough experience at the time that I won’t be juggling a newborn and a new job.
Crystal, I have had problems similar to Jamie lea’s on IE and Firefox 2.0 and 3.0.
Crystal, can you check your spam? My comment didn’t go through from yesterday on this thread. Thanks.
I have just started my own business from home – http://www.shiparose.com. It’s a rose printing business. My biggest challenge is finding a way to advertise it without spending a ton of money. I would love to know how everyone is getting their website name out there so people start visiting.
It’s funny, but I have never thought of myself as a WAHM until I read this post. I guess I actually am one, wow!
I care for my neighbor’s children in my home part time, which brings in a nice amount of extra income.
I am also beginning to see some steady income from my blog, which I started in March. Many of your tips and advice have helped me along the way. I am still learning every day, but you are such a blessing to the blogosphere! Thanks, Crystal.
Blessings,
Alyssa (aka Kingdom First Mom)
Hannah – if you are still reading this – would you mind sharing a little bit more information about your job as a Corporate English Trainer. Thanks!
Great topic!
I am a fairly new reader to your blog – about a month or so now, and I love it! Thanks for all your hard work!
I have worked at home for the better part of 5 years now. I started my own online scrapbook business, which grew by leaps and bounds and I was so grateful! It provided a better income for me (having just an AA degree) than I could have gotten in an outside job. However due to some unforseen circumstances, I had to close the business. Fortunately, an aquaintance bought it from me and is successfully working from home herself.
After that I dabbled in Arbonne but it totally wasn’t for me, and became a rep with Silpada but I am good at online retail scrapbooking, so I launched a new online store http://www.creativityboutique.com and am currently working on building up inventory there and hopefully that will once again provide a good part time income for me from home!
Thanks for starting this series, and thanks to everyone who is posting their experiences – I am enjoying reading them!
I am looking forward to following this post! I have just recently became a WAHM and I would love to hear more about opportunities to add to our household income. You are absolutely correct in saying that it is hard work. My family laughs at me when I say that I work harder now then I did when I worked an 8 – 5 job!
I currently work 2 days a week outside of the home, but with another bambino on the way, I’m trying to drum up something at home. I’ve been inspired by you and others to start my own blog http://frugalfamilyfun.blogspot.com/ and it is in its ‘extremely newborn’ phase. It practically needs an APGAR score, that is how new it is.
I was pleased to see your post entitled Frugal Family Fun last week, and I hope I can bring readers regular content on the subject. In my limited experience, I have learned to learn one thing at a time. Right now I am getting used to posting everyday. The next step is to figure out how to get people to read my content everyday!
Thanks for all your help!
I’m “working” right now…I’m on call for my job as a cardiac ultrasound (echo) tech! I take call three nights a week, in addition to working 8 hours on Sunday. I get paid just for wearing the beeper, and I don’t get called in too often. When I do go in, it’s only for an hour or so. I switched hospitals to get this job with such a flexible schedule. But there are a lot of jobs out there where you can get “pager pay,” especially in the health care field.
I’m “working” right now…I’m on call for my job as a cardiac ultrasound (echo) tech! I take call three nights a week, in addition to working 8 hours on Sunday. I get paid just for wearing the beeper, and I don’t get called in too often. When I do go in, it’s only for an hour or so. I switched hospitals to get this job with such a flexible schedule. But there are a lot of jobs out there where you can get “pager pay,” especially in the health care field.
I am a rep. for a direct sales company called At Home America. Next week I will be celebrating 13 years with the company. I absolutely love what I do. At Home America was started by two sisters who believe that you put God first, followed by your family, and then work you business around those priorities. I love this company even more today than when I started. It has been great for my family. I have worked a little, and a lot, depending on the situation and what was going on with my life at the time. If you are thinking about direct sales, I fully recommend it. Just realize it is a job, and it can be very flexible. Find something that you can believe in and you will love it. If you have any questions about organization, etc. I would love to help you.
I have been working as an ESL tutor at our church’s Christian school for the past few months. It works out to about 2 hours per day only four days each week and fits right during my boys’ naptime. My sister-in-law watches them so that I can do this. While the schedule is good enough that I know I am not missing out too much on Mommying time, I would still love to switch from doing this to working exclusively from my home. I am always watching out for something that would allow me to use my secretarial or education skills from home. The opportunity simply hasn’t come up yet.
Also, I am a little wary of jumping in full fledged into anything through the internet. I am afraid of getting burnt, dumping initial finances into something I won’t be good at, trusting a site that is a scam, etc. How do you know what places are credible? How do you know if a place will be successful for you? I am not much of a gambler in these matters and my husband likes it that way so far.
Almost 1 year ago I started working from home. People pay me to save them money! I do the research to find the best deals for just about anything and everything. Books, office supplies, furniture, electronics and diving equipment are just a few of the many things I’ve found. So far I have saved clients more than I billed them, so in a sense I was “free” and they still saved time and money.
Last month I saved clients over $10,000 off retail prices!
http://www.progressivesynergy.com
I love the flexibility it gives me. As long as I have an internet connection, I can work wherever I am!
I also continue to do some light network administration remotely for my former employer.
I am new to the WAHM and have been trying to find things to do. I’m so glad I found this website. I have had a great idea for some projects but haven’t known how to start them. Thanks to this I have found out about ETSY.com and many other ideas for advertising. One question though, how do you make your blog earn money for you. I have seen alot of posts for blogs that make money but when I look at the blogs they are just ideas of things not products that they are selling. How do you do that? Where is your income coming from on these types of websites?
I have been a WAHM for seven years as a contractor for my state. I have enjoyed it and it IS hard work – balancing and organizing are not to be under-estimated!
Tomorrow I will be an official SAHM and I am thrilled to be able to transition into doing just that – being home and just being “the mom.”
Love this blog! So glad I found it!
I’ve tried different things over the years on the side in addition to a full time outside the home job. Currently I work from home for a records retrieval company. We order medical records, police reports etc. for Life and Disability carriers. However, the hours are currently part time and not quite bridging the gap in our budget.
So in addition to my job I have a home based business selling items on Ebay and other online venues. I’m also a Tupperware consultant. Oh! I’m also contracted with a company that sends me out to do credentialing site reviews of doctor offices.
I know it sounds like a lot and sometimes it is
. But the Tupperware is very part time and the contract work is only a few a month. My goal within the next year is to be able to let the job where I’m an employee go to do my online exclusively. I’d probably keep doing the site review work as well.
I’m looking forward to learning some ways to make working from home more organized and if not easier maybe a little less stressful.
-Colleen
Thanks so much for a great article. In my previous career, I worked at home quite a bit as a computer programmer. I have not been employed for 1 1/2 years now, and have just started a blog to chronicle my efforts to save and make a bit of extra spending money at home.
http://mysahmjourney.blogspot.com/
Crystal, great series- I’m really looking forward to it!
I began my journey as a WAHM in October, after a year of dreaming and planning to start a site. After realizing that a blog could initially function for me in much the same way (and I was planning to include a blog on my site anyways), I just jumped into a blog and that’s what I’ve been doing the past almost 9 months!
The thing about starting any website or blog that you hope to monetize is that it is so incredibly work intensive in the beginning, with very, very little reward. It took me several months to begin to make more than what my blog costs me to run and really get set up (that’s not saying much- blogs aren’t that expensive to start!).
Only now, as I am approaching 9 months do I have much to show for my hard work, and even still, if you calculated the hours that I put in compared to what I make, it would be far below minimum wage!
However, I can now start to see that all of the hard work and foundations that I have been laying in this first year will begin to pay off for me, as my blog runs more smoothly, my readership is more established and more invested in my blog, my writing is improving, and my business sense is slowly (oh so slowly) developing.
What works for me is to keep my relationship with God and my roles as a wife and mother priority, and just keep working at being disciplined and tweaking my schedule to find creative ways to get work time in when I can. When I get unbalanced, everything starts to fall apart, and it’s unfair to my family, who are the most important to me. Trying to hold onto my business with an open hand (not a clenched fist) allows me to do my best as time allows, and leave it to God to use as He will.
Crystal,
About 2 days ago I sent in a comment asking if you could connect me to or connect me with the e-mail address of the lady that posted a reply about her WAHM job. She did TV reality show transcribing, and got connected with the job through her sister. I’ve searched your site and am not able to find her post anymore.
Would you please be able to connect me with her? Thank you.
Hello
I work from home with ChaCha.com and its a great place to work at home for especially if you have kids. I wanted to tell you about http://www.myccguide.com They are an unofficial forum dedicated only to chacha and there are tons of resources and help there. You can talk to other guides learn tips and tricks to work better and faster and complete FAQs for almost everything ChaCha! Plus you dont have to deal with the pressure of the official forums. Feel free to check us out and tell your friends about it. Its a perferct place for anyone looking to start with chacha to come too. We have everything the need there to help them get started from the first intial application and throughout their job if they are hired!
HI CRYSTAL! I wanted to let you know that I am a SAHW–a Stay-at-Home-Wife….I don’t know if this is yet an acronym but I am making it one! I started a blog not too long ago, and it is doing very well so far, I am still learning how to actually make it profitable. My husband’s income supports us, but I wanted to work from home to save money for when we have kids.
This website is for TEACHERS, who are always looking for a good deal or freebie! I taught for a few years so I knew this website would help a lot of people. I aim to help people, but also make a little money! I am learning a lot from your website….Thanks!
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