Nickole Prack of Stayin’ Home and Lovin’ It
Name: Nickole Prack
Tell us a little about yourself:
I am a work at home Mom with two beautiful boys, Collin who is 3, and Liam who is 1. They are the highlight of my life.
What is your business name and web address:
Stayin’ Home and Lovin’ It http://NickoleWorkingFromHome.com
What inspired you to become a work at home mom:
I wanted to be the one to raise my children. I also want to work toward bringing my husband home within the next year and help us to be financially free.
Tell us a little about your business:
I work in referral marketing. I get paid to tell others about the wonderful products that my company offers. There is no selling, inventory, collections, or delivery. It’s the best home business I have ever looked into, and become part of.
Is there any advice that you would like to share with other women:
All you have to do to succeed is to keep trying, and never give up.
What has been the most effective advertising method for you:
Message boards
Can you share with us one negative business experience that you learned from:
I bought some leads from a certain coop and called a woman who lived in South Carolina. I only call people if they request information from me, I would never call someone who didn’t request. The woman was so incredibly rude to me that I lost confidence and really just felt like giving up. After talking to my support group, I discovered that someone who is in another state and whom I will never talk to again, can have no direct effect on my life unless I let them. So now I just move on and say, “NEXT!”
Terry An of Sticker This Sticker That
Name: Terry An
Tell us a little about yourself:
I am a mom of 2 teens and a 9 year-old, who is my helper and best supporter of my new internet business, and a wife of a man who is a great dad.
What is your business name and web address:
Sticker This Sticker That at http://www.stickerthisstickerthat.com
What inspired you to become a work at home mom:
I was listening to Dr. Laura Schlessinger who is a popular radio pesonality and she strongly supports WAHMS and their efforts to find work that allows them to stay home with the kids. I never knew there was an option besides going to work full time to support the family, and she pointed me in the right direction…internet business. I still have to work but am striving to be a 100% WAHM.
Tell us a little about your business:
There are many people who struggle with what to buy a child for birthdays and holidays. They have to spend many hours at the mall and toy store trying to decide what to buy and whether if the gift would be age appropriate and whether if the parents would appreciate the gift or not.
We offer an alternative to the one-time traditional gift by sending “new” stickers & crafts to the child’s mailbox. Personalized with a message from the sender, the child love it because each month a gift will be waiting for them in the mailbox, and parents love it because it encourages the child’s creativity and to use their imagination.
Is there any advice that you would like to share with other women:
I want other women to know that there is a great resource of WAHMS in the internet community who can help them achieve their dream of eventually becoming a WAHM. I am still working at it and hope to achieve that dream soon. I wish I had know about this great opportunity when my kids were younger.
What has been the most effective advertising method for you:
My site has been through many changes since it’s inception in March, 2005. I have done some advertising, banner rotations and being listed in WAHM directories, but I think the most exposure comes from joining networks such as the Ryze and Mompack.
Can you share with us one negative business experience that you learned from:
I have not run across a bad experience yet. All the people I have met have been honest and generous with me. I hope that continues, but if I do run across such an experience, I know there is a resource of women out there who will help me through it.
Sonya T of The Tooth Faerie
Name: Sonya T
Tell us a little about yourself:
I am a SAHM to a 2 yr old and also trying to make extra cash seeing as my husband is going to be layed off soon. I make Tooth Fairy pillows and more and also am opening up a graphics site.
What is your business name and web address:
The Tooth Faerie www.the-tooth-faerie.com
What inspired you to become a work at home mom:
My little girl. I always knew I wanted to home school her and be at home with her.
Tell us a little about your business:
Tooth Fairy pillows with a personal touch and also recycled paper for cards or scrapbook items.
Is there any advice that you would like to share with other women :
It will take quite a bit of time to get any real business kicked off and alot of trial and error.
What has been the most effective advertising method for you:
As of now I have only had my business up for about 3 months. The best way I have had sales is moms on Mom Boards out there
Can you share with us one negative business experience that you learned from:
Time frames. Make sure if you have a special order available make sure they know time frames may get changed. And always stay in contact with your customers.
To Hire Or Not To Hire-The Babysitter Dilemma
If you work at home you may need to weigh the benefits against the possible pitfalls of hiring a babysitter. Each situation carries its own unique set of pros and cons. If relatives do not live nearby and you have to resort to outside help, potential strangers, to care for your children part of the day, please be thorough in your choices.
Mom’s who work from home and are assessing the possibility of hiring a babysitter can approach the dilemma from various angles. The schedule, a potential babysitter may need to adhere to can be more flexible when you work from home. The need for a babysitter is usually as important in this situation as if you work out of the house.
Work at home mom’s can use a babysitter to carry the bulk of the day so that productivity in the business side of life is not “stop and start.” Getting in the groove of work and going with the flow for a solid five hours or more constitutes a productive day. Stopping periodically to answer the phone, address the kids dilemmas, or make lunch for everyone can be distracting.
Whether you work from a home-based business or leave each day to work outside the home, the dilemma of hiring a babysitter has part to do with the trust factor and part to do with the guilt factor. There are many horror stories of people who abuse children. There are also millions of loving and nurturing individuals whose goal in life is to provide safe and secure babysitting services for people like you.
There is one main key to hiring a babysitter, follow your gut feelings. If you feel uneasy about any aspect of the babysitting process or the individual you have hired, bail! It is better to be safe then sorry. Your child(ren) will give you the greatest indication of how successful the relationship is between them and the babysitter. So listen to your kids and if they are too small to have a voice their body language speaks volumes.
The Magic Act-Managing Your Time Before It Vanishes
There is just not enough time in the day. You’ve heard it before and if you are a work at home mom you’ve probably said it several times. You may have even said it several times today. Twenty-four hours seems eternity when you are anticipating a special event, but flies by far too rapidly on a normal day.
There are strategies that will help you manage your time more effectively and efficiently. Schedules have to be made even if you abhor structure. Visualizing the week all at once really creates the necessity to eliminate things you can live without. You may realize your children are involved in too many activities and you can’t be two places at once. That’s right even with all the technology we have clones are still “too controversial.” Sorry moms!
You may have to make a few schedules – one for home, one to keep the home based business rolling along smoothly, and one just for your personal time. The idea of scheduling is to eliminate a lot of clutter and guess work so the fewer schedules you need to adhere to the better your schedule will actually work.
Structuring your chores so that you are not looping around and backtracking like the kid in the Family Circle cartoon is a simple yet monumental achievement. In house chores as well as out of house chores are equally in need of being planned.
Structuring homework, dinner and bed for the kids and doing the same for your major chunks of time is a great way to keep everyone in a rhythm. This is not to say that you can’t deviate from the schedule from time to time. In order to manage time more effectively there should be a structure to the main core of events.
Keeping your home-based business on track and being certain deadlines are met, clients are happy, banking gets done is another reason for a separate business schedule. Incorporating the business life into the personal life is a unique process. This is a challenge for all mothers but holds a unique feature for work at home moms. Being at home and having to be separate from home is a challenge in and of itself. It can be achieved and has been successfully done, so don’t give in to the lack of time. Make time work for you.
