Achievement of Goals and Feeling Overwhelmed

Is it possible to achieve your goals and feel overwhelmed at the same time? I mean, I have achieved what I wanted, right? High income, working at home? But I get an overwhelmed feeling sometimes when I can't see all of the details and don't feel like I have done everything that I should do. I'm currently only doing what has to be done and -gasp-declining some work! ):

I know that the next logical step is to hire some help and implement some systems, but I am having challenges keeping good workers motivated. I guess they have to have a certain type of mind set to be able to work with me.

I am considering hiring either:
another VA
an onsite employee who works in my home office
an offsite employee who works in her own home
an offsite employee who works in office space I provide

I have found that VA's I hire/speak to (professional VA's that is) have a work ethic that matches mine-they work hard, they're competent, they're full of ideas, they learn about the things they don't know about.

I have found that it is difficult for me to find other people to work with me locally who have that same attitude toward work. I have had increasing tasks that are causing me to possibly need a person with a license and background in my field and for that reason I may hire someone other than a VA.

I really don't want them to work in my home, necessarily, but I'm not sure that I want to rent office space ( my baby just climbed in my arms (: )

However, all of my income goals are on target to be able to afford the cost, which is minimal. Sometimes, it's not just about cost, though it's about hassle and headache. VA's are the least amount of headache since they're independent contractors.

I really don't want an on site person in my home. I work in my jammies and my baby runs around naked a lot. And I'm only in my office about 5 hours per day until 2 pm ish when I go pick up my kids and I want the person to be available for work until 5 or 6pm.

I am in the mood to have a pity party for myself, so I will continue my blog. I know that in a successful business, growth should be effortless on the part of the owner/sole proprietor. I need to grow a systems based business, not increase my job responsibilities. It is for that reason that I need to hire a licensed local professional, I have so may ways to make more money....A good entrepreneur would implement them, not think about them. I sometimes see my future as a managing broker. I have a lot of ideas on how to make money in this field. I just don't do it myself because I don't want to be the 60 hr per week professional. I don't want my agents to be this either, but if they have an entrepreneur mindset, they will already have figured this stuff out, I think... or not. I wonder if their is a desire in the market for a broker to actually show you sure fire ways to get leads and to hold hands with you throughout the process?? Coaching, motivating, and doing it alongside you as needed?

And where do I find time to think sbout these things, write down the systems and the busiess plan while doing my regular work? Oh yeah, that's why I'm supposed to wake up at 1am, not 5:45am! I just have to pray to God to help me. He keeps opening doors for me and showing me things I never would have dreamed of. I want to be His instrument to do what He wants me to do in this world. And, I want to be an at home mommy, I know that he has appointed thattask to me as well, and it is of the utmost importance.

September 29, 2007 Dearest Blog,

I haven't had time for you lately but that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about you.

I've been busy with, what else?! my work at home business. Challenges I've faced lately have been replacing unreliable virtual assitants and keeping my assitants happy. I have had one assistant for over 6 months and my assistant has become resentful and began complaining about one of my clients. In trying to keep her appeased, I didn't notice one of my other asssitants had been failing to complete assignments on time. These things came to a head over last weekend when I was trying to enjoy family time at the Circus so I was not pleased. Family is number 1 to me.

I must say on the bright side of things, my assistant that I've had for 6 months is great and the other assistant who didn't complete the assignments on time had a communication problem. I think we can move forward. I also have a third assistant who has not let me down at all and saved the day when theo others couldn't. I got through that mini-crisis, but felt really bad and down this work week questioned whether this is what I really want to do. I have taken some time off-which I keep doing every few weeks.

My production level has been so high with my team and I've arranged their pay schedules to align with my oay schedules fofm clients, so life is so good. I only have about 1-2 hours of wrok per day.

Despite all of this, I have been giving some thought as to whether this is realy where I want to be. I'm not passionate about my work. I'm a number cruncher for banks. I am more passionate about children and teaching, but that job won't allow me to be home with my own kids and have as flexible of of a schedule ad may not pay as much, espeically in the early years of teaching. I wondered if I should go back to school next year. I will apply to the local state university, since the aplication filing period is not for next year. Btu I don't think this is the right time, my baby will only be 3 then. I want to be a housewife most of all.

I also am working toward an upgraded license in my field, becusse it will help me expand what I am doing now as well as save me some money each month.

One of my cleints has asked me to do a different kind of work for him that has opende up a whole new door of possibility about income.

Also, I have thought about going into a different sales area of my field. It would mean much greater income and some time away from my baby. But probably in the evenings when my husband is home, so it would just invade on my family time. Auggh.

BUT, one day, my baby wil be in school. And I think that I would proably like to get into sales by that time. Well, I think I may want to do something else at that time. I have about 3 years. So, I guess that I would like to beigin setting up that aspect of this buisness, even if I don't go for it full force right now.

My plan for my business is to get it on track to earn me 60,000 per year working no more than 30-40 hours per week plus enough to put away money for retirement (10%). I'm about 75% to my goal. I have told myself that if I can't do that, I should go into a regular job with the school district with benefits when my kids get into school.

I keep thinking about tax time. I am earning a sold 2000-3000/month and don't have many deducations other than my home office. No child care excpense and I don't think that private school is a deduction. But, worry is a sin, so I will not worry, just keep swimming...

Staying on Track

Hello WAHMers!

Life has been keeping me busy. But I wanted to update. I have had to really focus on completing tasks daily that I set out to complete in order to get the bigger jobs done.

My to-do list today said:
· Create a chore chart for my kids-an idea from a book called “The Cheapest Family in America”-not done

· Forward information on my child’s school fundraiser to several friends via e-mail.-done

· Update my instructions that I provide to my assistant-not done

· Complete an assignment from a client that needed correcting – great news there-once I called the client and explained why I did what I did the way I did it, they said ok; you don’t have to change anything! Yeah!-done

· Price pants for my DD next year. We buy almost all of our clothes from the second hand store, so I’m used to them costing approx $4 per pair. Many times, we find new pants. They are mostly name brand pants, too. Next year, she’ll have a school uniform to wear and the pants cost $28.50 per pair. And they are not cut in a very flattering way. I want her to look like her peers, and not feel like she looks different. A few moms told me they buy their kids pants from the GAP or they buy Dickies. I found out that Dickies cost about $30 per pair and GAP pants cost $40-$60. Ouch. I’ll have to do what I’ll have to do. I want her to feel like she fits in, so if she really wants them. I’ll work something out.-done

· Pay Bills-not done

But I have a work life, too and that is what I want to write about.

In the past few weeks, I learned the importance of having a good account tracking system that logs work completed and tracks payment received and the date it is expected to be received. A client - a big corporate client who I never would have thought would screw up, did screw up and lost several thousand dollars worth of money owed to me. Ouch, but this served as a learning experience about tracking payments. I’m using a modified version of the system that was mentioned in the book “America’s Cheapest Family”

I also have learned the importance of not overworking. When I push myself too hard and work all of the time, I burn out and need to take week long, or longer breaks. I think it would be better for me to work fewer hours on a weekly basis, or fewer days per week, than to need to take off for weeks at a time. I try to only work when my kids are at school, but that only lets me work about 4 hours per day-since I have to have breaks to eat lunch and play with my toddler. The business woman part of me thinks that is absurd, the wannabe SAHM in me says, well... that’s ok.

I have hired 1 virtual assistant – who is a tremendous asset to my business - and also am in the process of hiring several other freelance assistants. It is really hard not to have anyone to bounce business ideas off of during the day, and having an assistant provides me with that.

I have also implemented a diet plan for myself and my family. I have lost 7 lbs so far and intend to remain committed to the diet for up to 3 months. After that I can simply maintain my weight. I figure that it takes about 30-60 days to from a new habit. When launching my business, there were several tasks that had to be completed daily, but I knew that by doing them consistently, I would make X amount of money. Now it is a habit for me to do the things I need to do in order to make money. Well, I am currently focusing on developing new eating habits for the next 30-60 days. I believe that although it may seem hard, once I teach my body better attitudes toward food, it will be easy to maintain the habit. Especially, because I plan to buy a new wardrobe once I reach my goal and maintain it for 2 weeks. I think I stated in an earlier blog that I need to loose about 50lbs in order to be at a healthy BMI. One rule is no eating at the computer-only water, tea with 1 tsp sugar or veggie sticks at the computer. I also exercise for 1 hour each day and have reduced my caloric intake.


Back to habits, I also plan to expand my business into an area that others are not forthcoming with how to get into. In order to do this, I will need to spend some money, and also some time prospecting for new leads. But I have faith that if I contact X number of prospects, I will convert a certain percentage into leads. Once I convert them to leads, a certain percentage will turn into clients. I want this prospecting to be a regular part of my business, until my business grows to the point that I get enough business by referral primarily.

One thing that really helps me to stay focused on developing my business is that I have a personal mission statement as well as a business mission statement. Baiscally, my personal mission statement is a few paragraphs on why I want to be a Stay at Home Mom. It talks about why I want to be a SAHM and the sacrifices I'm willing to make to be able to be available to my family to serve their needs.

My business Mission Statement talks about why I run my business-the "Why?" for me is in order to be an At Home Mommy.

Therefore, as long as what I'm doing lets me be home withmy kds, I know I'm going in the right direction for my business.

I also keep in mind the scripture Numbers 23:19 that says, "God is not a man, that He should lie; nor the son of man that he will repent.:hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? God is not double minded, he has promised to provide for me. When the devil places confusion before me, or things aren't going as I expected and I feel doubt I rely on this Word.

Happy Working At Home!

Tales from the home front

When working at home, it is important not to become stressed out and to roll with the punches, because the punches will come. If you take yourself or your work too seriously, you might get upset when something happens like what just happened at my house...

Picture it: the kids are "off-track" (think summer vacation for a month at a time 4 times per year) from school and I was hard at work completing administrative tasks for my business. I was working on income projections for the rest of the year. I believe you have to know what your goals before you can make a plan to achieve them. Everything was going amazingly well for me to even have enough time outside of my paid work to work on these goal setting and measuring tasks.

Just then, my 25 month old walks into my office and says "poop down". I ask him to show me and silently hope he will lead me to the bathroom where he will simply say he needs to go boo-boo and I will just set him on the potty. Ha! I must have been dreaming. My son led me outside and then I saw it, a rather large pile of poop he had just finished depositing on our backyard patio. So I rushed him to the toilet and the good thing was that he did want to sit down on the potty and wipe himself. The bad thing is, he was already done pooping.

Just then, my Blackberry rang and I shouted to my oldest to check my e-mail. One of my clients e-mails several vendors at once and whomever responds first receives the work order. So, it was a good thing that earlier this morning I had promised my daughter a commission if she received any orders for me while she was at the computer because my daughter did receive the e-mail and communicate back to the client for me.

Simultaneously, as I was shouting the directions to my daughter on how to communicate with the client, I discover poop tracks, all the way from the back door to where my son found me at my desk and back to where he was now sitting on the floor in a different room. Apparently, he stepped in his poop before coming inside to tell me.

Alas, it was a great morning, my son told me he needs to go poop and he wants to sit on the toilet, work is being completed ahead of time and new work orders have been received, life is indeed, good.

March Bloggin'

Here I am again, updating. Life gets busy. When I worked 60+ hours per week, I thought that reducing my hours and my work demands would mean that I would never feel like I didn't have enough time again. But that has not been true, as a PT WAHM (part time work at home mom-the next best thing to a SAHM), I am still just as busy, just busy with different things. I now have time to care for my grandmother, start a garden, exercise, cook more, etc. etc. When I worked more, I didn't have time for these things. But, as a WAHM, I do. I feel very blessed to be in a position to choose how I spend my time, versus having to work a lot just to get by and still not having enough time to do things that I want to do.

One thing I've had more time to work on is maintaining a healthy diet and exercising more. I'm doing it for the health of my entire family. I lost 4lbs, which is a small start. But, it is more about being healthy than becoming skinny, but skinny would be good! (: I currently wear a size 14/16. Within the past year or 2, I've cut down on some flab I used to carry, because now, "Women" size clothes are too big! I can no longer buy many things from Lane Bryant or the Avenue-2 stores that used to be my favorites. I found out last summer that I can now buy clothes at New York and Company. I am sooo happy about that. For the last several years, my lifetime goal has been to never gain more weight than the amount I have weighed since about 1999 which is 180, I'm 5/2 and carry it well, so, like I said I only wear a 14/16. A few weeks ago I weighed 185, so I'm really glad I noticed and lost the 4 lbs. I am concerned with developing a health related condition as I get older, so it is for that reason, I am looking to lose some weight.

Since it is nearing spring, I have been trying to add more things to my garden. Around Christmas time I planted red onions and cabbages. Back in January, I purchased a bunch of seeds that I can no longer find. I also bought a flat of 100 strawberry plants for $20. 2 days ago, Home Depot had some pretty good prices on vegetable plants, I purchased:

• 1 roma grape tomato
• 1 roma tomato
• 1 beef master tomato
• 6 pack Early Girl tomato
• 6 pack Better Bell green bell pepper
• 1 Cherry Tomato
• all for just under $18

I plan to build a tiered strawberry bed and possibly build raised beds for the rest. I already have the wood and I think it would be a fun project for my 8 y/o DS and I. I don't know if I can get my 11 y/o DD interested and DH will probably help once we begin. The kids have a science fair coming up in school and I'd like to incorporate the grade into their science fair project, but that may just be a far fetched dream of mine to kill 2 birds with one stone (;

As far as work, I took some time off during cold and flu season to take care of myself and the kids. I have renewed my state industry certification that I'd previously let lapse after the birth of my youngest son. In the field I'm in, I have to work as an apprentice/under someone else and I researched to find someone to work under who would allow me to telecommute. But it was worth it to me becuase of the flexibility I need in my schedule due to my life with my kids. I am also working to upgrade my certification throguh my state to the sam elevel as the perosn I noe apprentice/work under and have completed half of the educational requirements. I have developed a revised business plan that includes a specific time break down. As a Work At Home Mom, planning for my time is as crucial as a planning for budget in developiong a business plan. I need to update my families budget and update my business plan accordingly. 2 days ago, I purchased 3 books:

-an industry specific e-mail marketing book
-another industry specifc book on direct mail marketing

(by the way, my 2 year old is now in my lap nursing and it is the cutest thing in the world to me. He has been trying to get in my lap the whole time I've been typing, but I was able to distract him, but now he's so sleepy that he just wanted to sit in my lap and go to sleep, awwww)
I haven't read either of those books yet, but I bought another book at the same time called

-Another book, WorkingMother.calm, by D. Kennedy.

I'm not sure if it is aligned with my philosophy as a working mom, though. My life philosphy is all about being a SAHM first and foremost. I don't want to own an empire of money. But I am open to God leading me towards that. But my primary objective isI just want to be an available, involved be a mom. I want never to have to say, I can't be there for you, or I can't make it to your ___ or You can't go to ___ because of my schedule to my kids. I also want to not have work stress me out to where the stress impacts my parenting.

But I also want/need to earn some money. However, I don't need to be defined by my work. In our American culture, I think people are often defined by others by their job/work and that we often internalize that and begin to judge ourselves based upon our work performance and I think that is not what I want to be defined by. I think that is why working moms say they need to go to work and get adult interaction and to feel a sense of accomplishment and all that stuff. Being with your kids should make you feel good. And if it doesn't your priorities are screwed up. But, I know that a lot of moms don't do this on purpose, our society does it to us and many organizations that support working moms fo do it to us as well. For example, working mother magazine. Working moms do need support, but I don't think that all of the propoganda they push is healthy to moms and children.

To me, my "work" as a mom is the only work that defines me. My other work is just on the side to support me in my other work. I strive not to allow myself to be defined by my job. But I do think my job is very cool and I feel very blessed and fortunate to have the best of everything, in my opinion. To me, the book talked about women liberation themes and had a feminist slant. The book mentioned the opinion that I used to hold, that women shouldn't stay at home because they need to be capable of self support in case their DH leaves them or dies, and that is not a concern of mine. I know I could support myself if I needed to, even though I am not the primary bread earner at home. The book also mentions how some moms travel a lot and put their kids in daycare and that is not something I'm willing to do. I wished their was a book or magazine for moms like me who want their kids with them all the time and will only work if it meets the needs of their families. WorkingMother.calm does mention moms who have the same goals as me, but their is also a bunch of other stuff that doesn't pertain to me. But I'm, going to finish it anyway, I think, because learning even 1 piece of useful info to help me as a working mom would be great.