Get Your Family and your Home Business on board like a pro.

There are a lot of myths about starting your own business, and even more about working from home as a mom. One of which is that it’ll be easy to always spend time with your family and your business will just run itself.

While eventually, you can set up a situation where that seems true, at first it might be a little tricky. As long as you go into it with your eyes wide open you’ll be able to create a business that works with your family situation. You really can have it all when you have your own business, but maybe not all at the same time. Just find a way to make it work, and you’ll be glad you did.

Whether you start a service-based business or a product based business working from home can be the answer to many of life’s problems associated with lack of work-life balance. You won’t have to miss parent-teacher meetings, family night, game night or anything else ever again if you have everything in place and your spouse on board with your idea.

Are you still thinking about how to choose the right work at home business that suits you, then you need to read my post on how to choose the right work at home business for you.

Here are some tips to help you run your business without jeopardizing time with your family and how to overcome obstacles that might arise.

-Rid Yourself of Guilt – One of the most important things you can do is let go of any type of guilt you have associated with working. There is nothing wrong with wanting to and needing to earn a living. It doesn’t matter if you start a business or work in a job, most of us have to work today and the children really will be alright.

-Be Realistic – Trying to work with a nursing baby can be hard in any circumstance. It’s best to schedule your work realistically around your family than it is to try to expect your family to accommodate you. There are times work has to come first, but if you set your schedule realistically you’ll find fewer times of having to juggle.

-Get Help When You Need It – Whether it’s an au pair, a nanny, a VA, or a housekeeper, get help when you are able and when you need and can afford it. There is nothing wrong with putting 2-year-old in part-time preschool either. If you really want your business to succeed you will take the steps necessary to see that it does.

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-Create a System – When you determine what you’ll be doing for a business from home, it’s good to create a system just like you would if you worked at a job. Have a system in place that helps you keep track of what you need to do each day in order to earn the income you want to earn.

-Have a Plan B – Sometimes emergencies happen so it’s good to have a plan B. If you thought you were going to put in 4 hours of work the day your three children come down with the flu, then you’re obviously going to have to put that off. If you build in extra time to every deadline you create you’ll easily be able to create a plan B.

-Schedule Everything – Use a good calendaring system to schedule everything including work and family time. If you want to have lunch with your girlfriends on Tuesday at 2 pm for a couple of hours, you must schedule in that time including travel time. If you want to spend the morning with your daughter watching movies, schedule in.

-Date night with your husband, schedule it. Everything from cooking meals, to laundry, and all that you do – schedule it in and add in some extra time to make up for errors.

-You’re Not Martha Stewart – Guess what, it’s okay that you’re not MS, in fact she’s not even MS; she has an entire staff to help her be amazing. If you don’t yet have that staff let some things go. Perfection is not necessary to be successful at spending time with your family and making your business work.

-Take Time for You – One of the most important parts of the happiness equation is to always take time for yourself. Just like you put the oxygen mask on yourself first in the airplane if something goes wrong you must take care of your needs before you take care of everyone else’s wants.

-Keep Your Focus – Avoiding shiny object syndrome is important when you work for yourself at home. It’s easy to get your mind turned onto the next big thing instead of focusing on the business you decided to start. Make it a practice to only devote about 5 percent of the time you’ve set aside for working on new ideas outside of your niche.

-Get the Family Involved – Having a home business can be hard on the family too sometimes. This is especially true when you spend long hours in front of your computer creating products and performing services. Your family wants to be involved. If they can’t help you directly with work, ask them to help with household duties. You can pay your children a larger allowance now that you are earning an income.

-Accept Your Children’s Ages – When children are under 4 years old it is much harder to schedule time for working a business without childcare help of some kind. Whether that is your spouse chipping in more or hiring a teenager to help is up to you.

-Make Your OfficeChild-Friendly– You can’t expect your children to stay out of your office at all times. It’s just not realistic for a family. Instead, make the office child friendly by making it safe and also friendly. For example, you might put a playpen in the office with toys for your toddler to play in safely while you work.

-Take Time Out – Young children cannot focus on one thing for too long, so asking them to be quiet for an hour might be too much. But, you can set a timer for quiet time, set up a movie, and then when the timer goes off spend some time jumping around and playing directly with your child. They’ll soon understand that if they’re good when the timer is on they get one-on-one time with mommy when it rings.

-Expect Sick Days – Be prepared when you or your children get sick. If you have deadline focused work, build in extra time and never put off work when all is going well to stare at the TV or play on Facebook. When you have a family you need to work when you can so that when something happens you can be there for them.

When you set an intention to do something and to make your business work you will succeed. Don’t just leave it all up in the air, instead, create a plan of action and follow through.

Change the Way You Think

To be successful in blending your family with working from home in your business there are many ideas you may have had that you’ll need to let go. There are many different work from home myths that you may realize aren’t really true as you work toward changing the way you think.

-Let Go of Pride – Never be afraid to ask for help from your family and friends. If you need some quiet time to get some work done you’ll need to ask your family to do it so that you can get the work done for the sake of your business.

-Let Go of Even Stevens – You’re not going to spend 50 percent of your time on your family and 50 percent of your time on your business. It doesn’t work that way. Some days you’ll spend more time with your family and others more time with your business.

-Let Go of Self-Sacrifice – You don’t have to put yourself last to have a successful work from home business and a successful family life. You need to put yourself first when it has to do with your needs. Some needs are exercise, nutrition, socialization, and alone time. If there are issues that you struggle with as a stay at home mom, then read this post on 6 things that a stay at home mom struggles with. You will get ideas on how to overcome such issues and get to the place where you are giving your best to your family and business.

-Let Go of Traditional Schedules – In most cases, when you have a work from home business you don’t have to work traditional hours of 8 to 6, instead, you can work full-time around your life.

-Let Go of Traditional Ideas of Work – When you start a work at home mom business the work that you will do may vary, you might earn as a blogger, a YouTube star, or as a fitness coach. The sky is truly the limit and only your imagination can keep you from making money online in your own business. Sometimes learning that a combination of different ways of making money online will help you to achieve your financial goals. For more on this read my 5 posts that teach you how to make money online

-Let Go of Distractions – When you first start working from home it’s difficult to let the distractions of home fade into the background so that you can get some work done. But, if you practice doing it every day it gets easier to accomplish. Just do it every day and before you know it, it becomes a habit.

-Let Go of the Idea of Overnight Success – While you will experience success quickly if you craft a plan of action and stick to it, it won’t be overnight. For example, it can take one to three years to earn money as a blogger, shorter to earn as a service provider such as a graphic designer or virtual assistant. Many people combine both types of business to get started fast. if you want to learn how to combine various options of business in other to get a successful business, learn how I did it by opening an online store right after I started my blog.

You can’t let any of the myths stop you from working your home business and becoming successful. Just because you won’t become super successful overnight, it doesn’t mean that you aren’t going to be as successful as you want to be eventually with the right plan of action.

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Getting Your Spouse on Board

Sometimes the biggest impediment to starting a work at home mom business is your spouse. Try to understand that your spouse may not have been exposed to the information that you’ve read and may only know about the myths of working from home and not the realities.

They may see it as just a hobby and not enough money to provide the family with what they need and that might scare him. It’s up to you to get your spouse on board with your new venture in a good way so that you have the support you need to be successful.

-Schedule a Serious Meeting with Your Spouse – The first step to getting your spouse on board is to set up a meeting without distractions. You can go out to dinner to a place that is easy to talk and has wireless, or you can do it during a time the kids are sleeping or with the grandparents. However you do it, you need to avoid distractions.

-Remember, Timing is Important – Don’t hit your spouse with a business idea when you’re in debt, when things aren’t going well for him at work, or when the timing is all wrong. Talk to them when they’re in a good mood and ready to listen.

-Secure Financing – For a home based business you’re not going to need as much money to start your business but you will need some. Get the numbers down on paper so you can explain to your spouse how you’ll accomplish your goals.

-Compile the Research – It’s important to do your research in advance and know exactly what type of business you want to start before approaching your spouse. Put it all in a PowerPoint slideshow so that you can show him how serious you are and exactly what you need to get started and the projected income.

-Put All Your Cards on The Table – Explain to your spouse how much money you can make, how many hours you will need to work, and how this will affect your family exactly. If you lead with doing it for the kids, and for the family, you may get him onboard faster. Some spouses get on board faster when you show them the money first though. You’ll need to be the judge.

-Plan Together How To Make It Work – When you get your spouse on board you can plan together how to get the business going in the early days. Perhaps he’ll take care of after dinner baths and bedtime while you get some work done.

-Set Priorities Right From the Beginning – The entire point of starting an at home business is having more family time, yet earning enough money to support that goal. Ensure that you and your spouse are on the same page regarding family time and the importance you place on things like childcare and housework versus quality time together and earning money.

When you come to your spouse with a realistic idea, set goals, and the financials all in place they’ll be impressed enough and take you seriously enough to give it a shot. You must be very precise about what you need to make it all work. Don’t take it all onto yourself to get the new business to work without any help from your spouse. Do it right from the start and you won’t regret it.

Working at home can be very rewarding and lucrative. You have to be realistic, but you should also dream big. Make big goals; keep them super specific, and then craft a plan to make it happen. Schedule it all in your calendar, then stick to the plan and soon you’ll be a very profitable and happy work at home mom.

What Fathers Day means to this Generation

We are in a new generation, a generation that has the kind of gadgets that we only dreamed of or never even thought about in our own times. I was born in the eighties, so permit me to say that many things are new to me, each day I discover things that never existed when I was born. Things that were strange to us then have become the norm now. Our generation of Parents are in a quagmire, they are confused as to how to guide this present generation.

When this generation of Kids asks you a question, you have to sometimes take the time to research before you know the right answer to give. This is because things have so changed that you need to be sure you are even giving the relevant answer. You may be disgraced by your Kid if you are not careful, sometimes the answer they seek is more of an affirmation of what they already think is the answer. After all we live in a generation of information overload and this information is available on every platform you can think of.

This prompts me to think that this is a generation that needs Fatherhood like never before. Fathers can not afford to let them Father themselves because the knowledge they might get from other sources may not be what will help them mature into responsible adults.

Children in this generation need a strong male presence to teach them what real men should behave like. We are at a time when the real men should stand up and show the way to our upcoming young kids what it means to be a Father before they loose out. So on this Fathers day celebration here are 5 points that speak to me as a mom on what Fatherhood means to this generation. It is what every child desires in a father.

5 Things this generation expects from a Father

Be responsible:

A certain great man once said: responsibility is the price you pay for greatness. In this generation where responsibility is being abandoned like no other, you owe it to your children to show what it means to be responsible.

To be responsible means to understand what your role is in their life and to fulfill that role. Kids desire to see how to take on responsibility from you as a father, they don’t want you to be only the provider of the resources for the home even though that’s important.They want to learn life lessons from you, they want to learn how to handle the curveballs that Life often throws.

When they are confused as to why they need to work towards their dreams, it is you the Father that they will look to, to show them how following your dreams is the key to unlocking your happiness. When a Father abandons the family, a deep rift is created which cannot be filled by the mom no matter how much she tries.

Not growing up with a father in the home, has its own impact in the life of a child, from Drug to alcohol abuse, to depression and Poverty.Statistics from the National Council for Fathering stated that Children in Female-headed homes are more likely to be poor than those who are headed by married couples families. The rate was 47.5% versus 10.9% according to US Dept of Health and Human services.

They Look to you for a sense of direction:

Children look up to their Parents for a sense of what they should be doing. As a father in a home, you are like a captain of that ship. It’s you who determines which direction this ship will sail through in other to reach safe harbor.

An absentee Dad cannot sail the home ship, this calls for not only to be present in the home but to be involved in the life of your family. A family where the dad is actively fulfilling his role as the one who sets the direction and shows what they should be doing per time will produce kids who are more confident to face the world. The kids will find that the routines and boundaries set for them help set their internal values. They will grow up to live by it.

When a home is incomplete, confusion reigns because different values are being infused into the child at the same time and they do not know if its Dads value or moms values that should be imbibed. What often results is the child rebels and chooses to do what his peer groups are doing. This is where Peer group pressure wins over parental control and values. With Tons of information on Social media consistently espousing values that do make for a good upbringing, if the home is not in order, kids may turn to such for advice or seek a sense of direction from the wrong sources.

You will be a King in their Eyes when you treat their Mom like a Queen:

Most Men want to be the King of the Manor, but like most castles with Kings, a Queen also reigns. When you want your kids to look to you as the Royalty you are in the home, then you have got to do right by their mom too.

Most children have an affinity for their moms that are second to none. When you want that respect that comes with being the man of the home, then you must also show respect to your wife. When they see you respect and honor the work she does in raising them, you will win their heart the more.

I never saw someone who treated his woman right that the children did not adore. In fact, it is a known fact that children from abusive homes tend to be abusive too. When you abuse your spouse, you may not know it but you are raising a generation of abusive children. Children will respect a father who honors their mom.

As they grow, it will form a foundation on which they build the type of relationship they have with the opposite sex. When a home is dysfunctional, the children grow up with a lot of psychological issues that stem from how their Dad treated their own mom. Sometimes a man may be dealing with issues in his relationship with his wife which stems from how she saw her own Dad treat her own mom.

Children want their Interest to come first:

One of the first requirement of becoming a parent is the ability to put your kid’s interest first. But we see today that it’s not so, we have a generation o f parents who do not know what it means to be a parent, the Job comes first, the relationship comes first, sometimes even the hobby comes first.

We should put our children’s interest first because it will form the foundation of how they perceive life. When a child feels like he or she does not seem important, they will be willing to go with anyone who is able to make them feel better than they feel at home. Sometimes the Juvenile delinquencies we see are a result of insecure children from homes where the father is too busy closing the next deal to have time for his kids.

Girls especially want the affirmation that comes from their Dads because he is the first man they will ever have a relationship with, her relationship with her Daddy will often define how she views men in life. If that relationship is handled well, we often have a girl that is confident and able to handle a relationship with the opposite sex. She is not afraid to speak up when something is not going on well in her own relationship and can often tell when a relationship is not healthy.

A girl from a home where love is freely given will not be willing to fall into the arms of any man she who expresses Love to her. She can tell when Love is genuine and when it’s not.Sometimes teenage pregnancy is the end result of little girls seeking affirmation from the wrong person.

One thing I have always known is that am yet to see a person who loved spending more time at work than with his family. In making decisions for the home, a Father should remember the kids are the reason he works so hard so he ought to consider their interest.

That big promotion that will take you away from the family so much and deny you the joy of being there when it matters to your child, may not be worth it after all.The good thing about these sacrifices is that they are not forever, children grow up one day and they will always hold dear in their heart what you did to make them happy.

After all the Physical is taken care of their Spiritual Lives needs looking after too:

When all is said and done, they only thing that matters is how you were able to pass on your Faith in God if you believe in one to your kids. God said of Abraham, for I know him, he will command his household to follow after me. The next question you should be asking yourself is; will God have such a testimony about you?. A Father is called to be the priest in the home, the one who gathers everyone around the table to pray for the family issues. When a father is open with his children, he can call them to prayer for issues that are happening that needs God intervention. They can stand together to rebuke what the enemy is doing in the Family and set it right.

It is also your duty as a Father to pray your children into their God given destiny. Children face a variety of temptations in this present world, at this time. There is no better time to pray for them to make the right choices in life and live lives that give God glory.

For when your Kids are grown up and are settled in life fulfilling Gods design for their life, you are a much happier Grandparent. It’s a sad thing for your children to be a continuous source of concern to you when they have grown up.

So there is call to action during this Fathers day celebration for Fathers to take the helm and teach their faith to their children, to pass on moral values for the next generation and to ensure that we leave behind children whose heart is for God.