Starting a new, successful home based business is probably not at the top of your list with a new baby in the house, particularly if you are a single mom. But finding family-friendly income might be. Raising a business and baby at the same time can be both exciting and challenging but also rewarding. Author Jennifer Forest believes that it is the ideal path to follow for many women. It is the best way to create an income, which is both independent of the workplace and family-flexible.
But can single moms realistically do that? Many single moms face this dilemma: if they don’t work, there’s no income. Where is the money going to come from while you start a business? Unlike married mothers, single moms don’t have a giant insurance policy – an income earning spouse – who pay the bills while they work on making the business profitable.
For her book, Work Women Want: Work at Home or Go Part-Time, Jennifer interviewed single mom Annie Scanlan who has successfully created two businesses around her son. When her son was a baby, Annie ran an events and promotion business from home. Then when her son became a teenager she set up a daycare center in her home.
‘‘[Running a business] is super difficult to do as a single parent, male or female.” Annie said. “It is a hard thing. But once you get it up and running and you’ve found something that works and you find your balance, it really is good. I never had a second income…” Annie admitted, “There was no way in the world that I wasn’t working. The hardest thing was finding the balance of work and family. Finding something that I could do that would create me an income and not take me away from family. That was the tricky bit.”
Many single moms need the new business to start making money quickly. Here are some tips to help.
Tips for building a successful home based business:
- The quickest way to start building a profitable business is to work with the skills you already have. These can be the skills from your career, degree or life experience. What skills do you have that customers will pay for?
- Match the business activity to your personality styles and strengths. If it is the right fit for you, it will be so much easier to spend the hours on it that you need to make it profitable. What type of business is 100% authentic to who you are?
- Build a support network with other single moms, so you can help each other out with childcare. That way you can each get to meetings, or find a few extra hours to finish a client’s project. Which moms do you know who would like to be in this support network?
- I heard a statistic that said 80% of running a business is doing the marketing. Marketing will take many forms and will be different for each business. What’s your marketing plan? What’s the best way to talk with your customers?
- Work with what you have, where you are. Often, the best business ideas start with a problem or a need that you identify from your own personal experience or that of friends and family. Who do you know that can be your first client or customer?
Jennifer Forest is the author of Work Women Want: Work at Home or Go Part-Time. She is on a quest chasing the promise made to her as a teenager: that women can have it all. Why can’t women have time to take their kids to the playground but still make decent money? Jennifer’s website: www.workwomenwant.com
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