Christmas Time for this Work at Home Mom

I am recovering from Christmas. (Staying up late X-mas eve, recovering from a sinus infection, and Aunt Flow visiting.) But I'm not complaining. I spent a lot of time with family, which is a blessing.

The reason why I choose to work at home is because I really want to be home with our children. In order to make that dream a reality, I have had to reduce our spending. If I had known before I was married and had children that I'd one day want to be home with my kids, I could have avoided incurring such a high mortgage debt and I wouldn't have to reduce my spending so dramatically, but I happily reduce my spending to enable me to be home with our children. A resource that has taught me a lot about how to really reduce my spending is the book: Miserly Moms by Jonni McCoy ( http://miserlymoms.com/ ). I recommend it to all moms, those who work at home, stay at home or work outside of the home.

Some of the ways I saved money this Christmas were:

I made 3 aromatherapy heat / cool wraps as gifts. The fabric for each one cost about $3. I filled them with rice and herbal tea. I only bought 1 box of tea $2.99 and used some more tea and rice I already had at home. I had the opportunity to use my husband's home-made heat wrap today and it worked beautifully.

I bought plain wood picture frames ($1) and painted them and put pictures of the kids inside.

I made an all natural scented body scrub for my DH. These ingredients were not that cheap-$7 per scented essential oil, $3.50 for a bottle of safflower oil; $3.50 for coarse sea salt. $1 per bottle with a cork to store it in. But I have enough ingredients to make a million batches. The recipe I used for him was:

• 4 tablespoons crushed coarse sea salt
• 10 drops spearmint oil
• 2 crushed bay leaves

It exfoliates and moisturizes.

I made blankets for the children of my close friends. The blankets were made from no-sew 27 inch pillow kits. The kind where you cut the edges into strips and tie in knots. Since their kids are preschoolers, the pillows are the perfect size for blankets. I also found some Raiders football fabric remnants and made a pillow for my brother-in-law. These pillow kits were $4.97 each in the clearance bin at the fabric store.

There is a picture store in my area called Pic**** Peo*** and they had an in store special for free pictures. I ended up getting 2 sheets of 2 poses so I paid $20. I went to Wal****** and made 4x6" copies for 29 cents each. I never buy school pictures or sports photos, so I felt is was ok to spend the money.

I also finally got around to planting the veggies I bought a few weeks ago. (: I bought approx. 40-60 onion plants for $3. I also planted 6 baby cabbage plants which cost about $2.50.

Cabbage cooked with bacon and onion and garlic makes an excellent tasting cheap meal.

I plan on growing some more greens and some fruit trees, too.

I guess I should get to work now, while my baby is sleeping. Achieving the right balance between family, work and rest is a challenge for me. But that is because I am very weary of allowing my time to be taken from my kids, even if it is to work. I desire to work at home and have time to do homemaking and have time for my kids and have time for me. ( The preceding was written in reverse order of importance to me )

One thing I think I need to do is to make sure I allow myself to be off 2 days per week-preferably on the weekends when DH is home. In order to do that, I will need to do more work during the week. Because my business plan included setting aside time to work and care for my kids and rest, I know I can do it, it will just require diligence. My learning curve will be steep during the startup phase so I can make sure that this business meets my needs. I am very picky now becuase I had a different work at home mom business before that was idyllic in the first few years, but then I had bigger goals and it no longer suited my needs. Yes, I do want the world. *If* I'm going to work while raising our kids, the children will come first, then my health-which is dependent on my not being stressed or overworked.

Darn, the baby is up and I haven't even begun work. That's what happens when I don't get right to work while he sleeps.

-signing off

Gaining Momentum

I haven't posted in a while. I have been going 'round and 'round in my head considering what I really want to do. I was worrying and not giving my concerns to God, which was a mistake.

God did something for me that only He could do. After I realized that I had been worrying way too much, rather than believing God's word, I asked for forgiveness. The scripture that came to me that caused me to stop worrying is the one where God says we should pray to Him to "give us this day our daily bread". What this has meant for me in life and in my business is that God didn't promise that He would give us a whole bunch of bread to store in a storehouse so we'd never have to worry again, but He did say that He would provide enough for us on a daily basis. Just thinking of that makes me smile.

Well, how this all relates to my VA business is that once I repented to God, when His spirit spoke to me, all sorts of things happened to make my VA business a reality.

1) My dad offered for me to take part in the business he has successfully run for about 25 years. This will create additional income for my family.

2) The phone company offered us a discount on my DSL/Phone/Cable package. I was really considering cutting off the DSL and Cable. We have a package deal that is very expensive. The new package will save us $49/month.

3) Additionally, a couple I know asked me to perform VA work for them on an ongoing basis. It is a good deal of work.

Prior to these things occurring, I was considering forgetting about my VA plans, they seems too hard, too much work. But when God pours you out a blessing like the one I received, and am receiving, you know that he is pointing you toward something. I had given up on this dream, but then God showed up in a major way.

I feel so blessed right now. I have been working at home, striving for balance in my life and my kids lives. My mornings have been picture perfect, just like right now. My new dog, a Yorkshire Terrier, is laying next to me on the floor. My 2 sons are playing with legos and watching Rug Rats. I never planned for life to be this good. But I did know God had a plan for me.

Did I tell you that my bank account will say I'm low on cash flow, but it doesn't matter to me, because my future is bright. I feel optimistic that I am leading the life God intends for me because I let go and let Him.

I love being available for my kids. I love not having clients in my home all day, as I did in my previous business. I feel like a better mommy since I can focus my attention on my kids. I feel balanced in other areas, as well. I am involved in lots of volunteer work with my local public school, and I've had more time to devote to that work.

For those moms out there considering work at home or considering becoming a VA, I'd like to tell you about my daily schedule, since becoming a VA:

I try to wake up very early, around 5am. (about 1/2 the time I do, and 1/2 the time I don't wake up until my DH leaves for work around 7:15). Once I obtain more VA clients, I won't be able to sleep in on those mornings. (;

While the kids are asleep, I make decaf coffee-it is a goal of mine to cut back on caffeine. Since I work on my kitchen table, I usually have to clean it off 1st and then set up my laptop and printer and other items I need to do my work.

Sometimes, but rarely, I make a healthy breakfast for my family. This is usually only possible if I get up at 5am. It is my goal to do this everyday. DH has diabetes and the kids and DH are more likely to eat healthy food if I make it, than if I leave it up to them to find something.

Depending on what time I get up, I have 2-4 hours of work before they wake up and need me.

Since my kids are home from school-we have year round school so they are off-they all sleep in until around 9:30.

So I take a break from work around 9:30 or 10 and clean up/recharge my batteries/spend time with my kids/etc.

Since 2 of my children are older-2nd and 6th grade- I involve them in my daily work goal setting. I tell them that I will be done soon, that I just have 1 more hour and then I'll be done. I think it is important that they see that I am indeed at work.

For me, the reason why I chose to work as a VA is to be home with my kids, and if I work all of the time, all day, that defeats the purpose of my choice. But I do think that they can stand to not need me for at least 4 waking hours per day, since the alternative is going to daycare all day while I have a regular job.

I then make sure I will have lunch ready for my toddler by around 12 noon, so he can take a nap and I can finish up my work while he naps.

Then the rest of the day is mine. Except administrative tasks for my own business and volunteer work, etc. This is just a goal, it doesn't always happen, but it helps me to get almost everything done early.

I just installed Office 2003 and am trying to learn Outlook and the Calendar program. I have a training CDRom (it was recomended by a successful VA and is called "PC Tutor Learn Office, Windows and more-Deluxe), I will have to schedule time to work on this. I find that I have to plan ahead to schedule everything in, both personal and business tasks, since becoming a VA.

I am also planning to reactivate my real estate license, since I have been doing Real Estate VA work.

Also on my "To Do" list is to finish putting up Christmas lights. My 8 year old son asked me to put them up and I said, "I'm too busy." and he said, "But we didn't have them last year either." And when I looked at the gutters of the house, I realized we have never put up lights since we have lived here-almost 4 years! That makes me really sad about he kind of life I was leading and made me even more determined to make the changes necessary to be more available for my kids. I can hardly believe that I haven't had time to put up X-mas lights! For 3 Christmases! And I didn't even realize it. That's not the life I want for my kids. I want time to enjoy doing "child friendly" activities with them.

I also plan to move my office away from my kitchen table and to our unused family room/formal dining. It used to be there. I also want to put a TV in there. Yes, I use TV as a babysitter for my baby while I do work. It is usually PBS. And only for 30 minutes-2 hours per day. And he always has toys to play with and I read him books daily, too. I would also like a CD player. I like to listen to Gospel while I work.

I guess it's time for me to sign off.

ps: my 8 year old chose the font color today...

Keeping Momentum

I haven't written in a while because I've been so busy. It was time for the end of the year celebrations and field trips at my kids school.

And to be honest, I have wondered if this new business is for me. I want it so bad, I can visualize it. And I think I can do it. But doubt and timidity do creep in.

I worry about my skills, even though another person in the field told me that I come across as very professional, she couldn't even tell I was a newer VA.

I know that in business, image is everything. It is the customers perception of your quality that will make them want to pay you, not because you are really "Number 1". Being "Number 1" is subjective. I mean, you must be competent, but perfection is not required-and by nature, I try to be a perfectionist. I know that in order to accomplish my goal of creating a new business, I need to get away from this, but it has been hard, because of my insecurity because this wasn't my original career area of expertise, but rather something I've learned along the way.

But I just have to tell myself that I can do it, (I believe that we all must believe that anyone can achieve their goals) if I try and remain dedicated. One of my my biggest concerns is that this is not what I really want. You know how we think we want something until we have it, but then we realize the truth. The grass is always greener on the other side. I want to really know the other grass, the good and bad of the job and its negative aspects to my family.

My business plan has turned into a binder and that's ok. I have sections for every area I need to work on. This has really helped me not to have a big mess of miscellaneous papers. Everything goes into 1 of the following areas so that I can refer to it.
*Description of Business
*Marketing
-free and quick
-free and time intensive
-low cost
*Systems to Implement/Things I have to Do
*Income/Expense
*Web/Internet (my site)
*Associations
*Training/Certificates (I want)
*Transition from old business to new career
*Rates/Pricing
*Receipts

One major challenge has been finding time to work on everything related to my business since I work full time and have a family. But the binder helps. I've also made a schedule of times I will work once the business is up and running as well as I've made a schedule for the right now planning stage.

I've been submitting proposals for VA work to get practice doing that. So far, 1 place has had me sign a contract-yeah!!!! My main focus now is business system develop,emnt. I read a book about how important effective systems are to sole-proprietorships called "the e-myth..."

I plan on hiding the ground running with my systems in place November 1 (or at the latest by January 1). That's my personal deadline to begin!!

I also have signed up for my business phone line, but haven't hooked it up yet and have reserved another domain name.
I have also purchased several VA books-"The 2 Second Commute", "VA the Series" and "VA Manual" I go onto websites for networking as well. I get so much information-some beneficial, some discouraging and I have to remember that I don't need all of these opinions in order to start a business. I managed to create other successful businesses without this much information. But I'm older and wiser now. But I think being older and wiser sometimes makes me a bigger worrier and has the potential to stop me from doing great things. I've done some great things in my life that I wouldn't have done if I knew then what I know now. (; Like become a single mom and buying my 1st home at such a young age while single with very little reserves leftover. I didn't know all of the repercussions of these decisions and if I had known, I probably wouldn't have made the same decision at the time, but these were some of the the best decisions I have ever made. (: I love my children!!! They are great!!! And the equity from that 1st home has provided well for my family.

And you know what else, I'm tired. I am trying to start this business during a few minute time periods every day (while I work on my other job -with staff-and tend to my own children) I plan each day to work in the evenings, but every evening I get tired. ): I am not at my best this late in the day-it's only 5:30pm. Oh, how I wanted this morning at 5:30am to jump out of bed and work on my new business, but I couldn't, I had to go to work at my current business and it made me sooo sad. I've been on vacation and last night-I couldn't even sleep, I was so anxious about returning this this job I hate that stifles me and makes me feel claustrophobic. That is my motivation for creating this new business. It is also why I must set a deadline, becuase my other business stops me from working on this one like I need to. I owne it to myself to try -to give 100% effort to the new business once I've done all I can while the other one remains open.

So I guess I should try to work on the tasks in my binder-completing additional training being near the top of the list. I also want to price some of the certificates I want. I hope I'm not too tired to learn. If so, I need to find something to do for my business that is easy on my mind.

Woo Hoo! I'm on the web!

I finished creating my website! I did it!

Such a seemingly small step, but it is very big with respect to my business plan. I finished my website finally- and I created it all by myself! This is actually the second business website that I have created on my own. But the 1st one was different because this time I wanted a certain "look" and "feel" that was more professional and conservative. The 1st one was for a totally different type of business so it was OK that it was more..."fun".

The web site is somewhat plain but it will suit my purposes for now.

It sure was great that I had my business plan already typed up so that I could simply refer to it for ideas on exactly how to word the text of the site.

I thought of paying someone to make my web site for me, but opted not to for a few reasons:

-Reason #1 is the cost! The lowest price was still a few hundred dollars and although I understand that I will probably end up inviting more money than that in my business, I only want to spend money where I need to.

-Reason #2 is because I'd love to offer web design as a part of my VA business service offerings. But I have to get better at it. Actually, I'm quite satisfied with my website!

My next steps will be to register my business name in my county and order business cards. Online my business cards will be very inexpensive. Oh, and I was going to get a PO Box and a cell phone and possibly a 1800#.

I'll have to double check my budget for these things. There is also a real estate assistant training class I am seriously considering taking on June 14th -15th as well as several community college classes that are offered this summer and in the fall that I want to take that will increase my skills in areas I'd like to offer services. There's even a course on virtual assistant careers! Decisions, decisions, decisions... Oh, and I need to design my contracts, etc.

I know there are a lot of organizations online that will provide training and sample contracts to me if I pay for their training class, but each one I've looked at costs several hundred to several thousand dollars. I have to choose how to spend my time and money wisely.

I just finished reading a book that was all about setting up your business with good systems so that sole-proprietors don't go crazy. It is motivating me to go slow and steady in this phase of business set up.

(I have such great kids! My 11 year old is teaching my 7 year regrouping - we used to call it carrying back in my day)

At some point, I've also got to send my computer away to be fixed-it keeps overheating.

On a reflective note, I was feeling some doubts about pursuing this career. It seems scary to me to devote so much of my time and money to a new venture-especially when I have a business that provided decent income now - although I don't care for the restrictions the other business places on me. I am back to feeling somewhat motivated to push forward with my plan because of the different lifestyle I'll have. I'll truly have the best of many worlds-with regard to work-family balance.

Burning Desire

I think that in order to develop a business, you must have a "burning desire" to operate that particular business. This is because when the going gets rough, you need motivation. Businesses-especially in the start up period-are up and down in terms of failures versus suceesses and cash flow/income. I am thankful that God has blessed me to have my present successful business that allows me to be home with my children, I worked very hard to strat that business and develop it. And do you want to kinow why worked so hard? My fear of losing my home (as a single mom) created a burining desire in me to succeed.

It has been hard for me to have such a burning desire this time around. I am more educated on the world and now I feel like I have many options and choices on how to meet my families needs. Becuase of having so many choices, I have not felt committed to starting this new business.

But commitment is building in me. Because urgency and desperation are setting into me. I am defining what it is I want in my life with regard to my children.

Now, this next part may offend some, but this is my blog, so I'll say what I feel. Someone else can blog about their feelings on their blog. So here goes: I really believe that I need to be home with my children and I don't feel that my families need for income comes at a higher priority than my responsibility to be active in my kids lives. I also believe that stability is very important to children's long-term well being. So is a feeling a "sense of belonging" within their community. My children have enjoyed these things thus far and my burning desire to have this business is building becuase of my commitment to provide these things to my children.

What exactly is it that I want for my family?

-I want to (continue to) be home with my youngest child.
-I want to (continue to) be available to be a "room-mother" and "soccer mom"
-If my kids aren't feeling well, I want to be home to take care of them
-(I think) I want to continue living in my neighborhood

What exactly do I want for myself?

-I want a job that allows me to continue towards completing my degree (I go to school online-which fits in great with my children's needs, but also requires I have lots of time to go online and work).
-I want a job that allows me to go outside during the day.
-I want a job that allows me to have breaks during the day.

(Maybe you're wondering what kind of job I currently have, but I'm not telling (: )

I believe that operating a successful business is within most peoples grasp with a few resources:

1) Knowledge / Information the indusrty from an inside the business point of view.

2) Time and/or money to market and develop and focus on building your business.

3) Gumption/Get up/Agressive Marketing (not agressive as in "hard sales), but having a consistent way of reaching potential customers. But, the bottom line is you have to understand that you are in sales if you own a business.

So I want to be a VA Mommy

Maybe you're wondering what a VA is. It is the business I'd like to develop in order to provide an income for my family as well as be present and available during the day for my children.

VA stands for Virtual Assistant. A VA is a professional administrative assistant who helps other business owners to be more productive and earn more income. VA's do this by providing outsourced administrative services on an hourly or per project basis.

I hope that through my blog, I will journal my efforts for my own reflection and to motivate me.

I think that my journey to develop a business that allows me to balance my work and the needs of my 3 children is an important one that deserves documentation in order to inspire me and *hopefully* others, too.

My mission here is to just go for it and just do what needs to be done in order to simply find out if what I want is indeed attainable.

Why I want to be a VA:

In order to have a business that provides me with more daytime flexibility than my current Work At Home (WAH) job affords me.

• Daytime flexibility allows me to continue to volunteer at kids elementary school and to be present to spend time with my toddler.
• I want to continue to be able to take holidays and vacations.

Steps I still need to take:

• finish designing my web site
• market my site
• create other marketing materials (business cards, brochures, etc.)
• market my services...this is the fun part! NOT! (:
• improve my technical/administrative skills (I've loaned some library books on topics as well as registered for online classes at the community college.)