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.)