Home with the Kids Blog

Are Local Keywords Important to Your Home Business?

2012-02-08T06:29:18Z

When I look at how some people market their home businesses, there can be a decided focus on areas near where they live. You can see that in articles where a city name is clumsily added to the text in an attempt to make the article relevant to a particular area. Is that really necessary? Does it matter where your home business is located?

Maybe, maybe not. That depends on what you’re doing with it.

Should Your Focus Be Local?

Sometimes having a local focus is a good thing. If you prefer a lot of face to face interaction in your business, a local focus is good. It’s far easier to deal with clients and customers who aren’t hours away from you.

If you’re running a daycare, for example, your focus must obviously be local. The only clients you would meet from out of the area would be ones who are moving to your area. Keeping your online marketing relevant to your local area is vital when all your work involves being physically there your clients.

If your business is mostly online or you can ship your product anywhere, a local focus may not be such a good idea. Unless you’re offering information about a particular area or products from there, you probably don’t need to emphasize location in your marketing.

What About the Long Tail of Search?

Some people use location based keywords to improve their results for long tail searches, that is, searches that are relevant to their business but aren’t often typed in. This can be a great strategy, but you really have to think it out.

The problem with using location based keywords for your home business it that they sound strange. If I write a sentence with the phrase “work at home California” in it, odds are that it’s going to sound wrong. That’s not how people usually write about working at home in California, even if it may be how someone types their query into a search engine.

What you may want to remember in those cases is that you also need to look good to people once they get to your site. If you’re using a bunch of clumsy phrases just to get long tail traffic, your site may not look so good once a visitor arrives at it. In the long run, you need to appeal to the people viewing your site even more than you do to the search engines sending the traffic in the first place. After all, visitors are happiest with sites that are easy to read, and not all will come via search engine if your doing well with your marketing.

Your use of keywords on your site, whether for local search or other long tail benefits, needs to come naturally. Rather, they should appear to come naturally, as good writing on any website is the result of some effort.

What Is the Real Cost of “Free” to Your Home Business?

2012-02-06T06:16:47Z

I’m not always a fan of “free” when it comes to running my business. Getting things for free feels nice, but it’s not necessarily effective. “Free” always comes at a price. It’s just not always all that visible when money isn’t directly involved.

Don’t get me wrong. There are many free tools you can use for your home business that are very much worth it, such as the Open Source tools I mentioned in a recent post. But if you rely on free things in the wrong areas, you’re asking for trouble.

Free Goes Poof!

One cost of using any free tool for your home business is that it can go away at any time. If you’re relying on it, that’s a huge potential problem.

That’s the big problem with free blogs such as WordPress.com, Tumblr and Blogger. Do something wrong and your blog is gone. Don’t do something wrong, and sometimes it still vanishes, and you don’t always get a warning or a chance to move your data elsewhere.

Free tools vanish often, even when they’re supported by big companies like Google. Right now, Google Wave, Knol and Picnik are scheduled to be shut down within a few months. Sometimes, as in the case of Google Wave, development stops more than a year before the final shutdown. Tools supported by smaller companies can also vanish or cease development.

What Are You Giving Up For Free?

Free means only that you aren’t spending money for the product. There’s often a different cost for you.

Information is a big one, and it’s why you need to read the privacy policy and terms of use for any free products you use. You want to know what will happen to any information that passes through that tool. Most are respectful of privacy these days, but it pays to check.

The cost is usually that you are exposed to advertising. I personally don’t find it to be too big a deal, so long as the ads don’t get in the way of the utility of the tool. We all have to make a living somehow, and providing something free with no way to earn any money at all doesn’t help.

For free blogs, the cost can be whether or not you can earn money with your site. Some don’t allow you to commercialize your blog at all. If you can’t make money, it’s not a business, it’s a hobby.

May Not Work as Well as a Paid Tool

Sometimes the free tool is indeed the right tool for the job, but other times you really need to use the paid tool. You need to consider the flexibility you need.

Free blogs are a great example of this. It’s quick and easy to put up a basic Blogger blog. The problem is that it takes more effort to make it look professional, especially if you don’t even spend money on your own domain name.

Putting up a WordPress blog on paid hosting (rather than a free WordPress.com blog) takes a little more time and has monthly costs, but you get a tremendously more flexible blog with more themes and plugins available, so that your blog can have the look and options you prefer.

Free can be amazing, of course. Google Analytics gives you a tremendous amount of information about traffic to your website, yet it’s free for most users. Some do have concerns about how much information Google gets by providing such free tools to so many websites, but most find the advantages sufficient to use them anyhow.

Use Free Right

The big thing you need to remember is to use free right. If you want to have a home business and take it seriously, spend a little on it. Get a domain name and pay for your hosting. Domain names are cheap, and it’s easy to find hosting for less than $10 a month. That’s not much money at all to risk, even knowing that you may not earn anything for a while. Going with the free option may slow you down and make it harder to start your business right. Save free for the areas where it won’t hurt you in the long run.

Making Time For Fitness While Working at Home

2012-01-25T06:11:20Z

One common complaint for people who work at home is that it’s really easy to get out of shape. You have your refrigerator right there, and it’s way too easy to sit at your desk or on the couch working on your computer for too many hours each day. You have less excuse to leave the house, and too often that leads to not exercising enough.

Obviously, this weight gain can happen as a result of any sedentary job, whether you work at home or away from it. But if you’re at home, you might just have the flexibility to do something about it.

Take a Walk

Taking a daily walk is a simple way to get some basic exercise in. No special equipment needed, and you can work it into your day relatively easily.

I take a walk when my kids are at school, for example. I often help in my son’s class, but take the long way home. It’s a little over a mile is all, but the steep hill on one side makes it a pretty good workout, especially when pushing a stroller.

The trick with taking a walk is minimizing how you let the weather stop you. What are your limits? Will you walk on rainy days, cold days, hot days, snowy days? It’s all too easy to let seasonal weather stop you for a time, and then fail to pick the habit back up later.

Get Basic Home Workout Equipment

Unless you know you’re going to be serious about using it, I don’t suggest spending thousands of dollars on home fitness equipment. I’ll admit that a treadmill desk sounds really appealing, but that’s more than I’m ready to spend right now.

My husband and I did, however, buy a Total Gym 1100. It provides a nice range of workouts.

Find the equipment that you like to use. If you have or have had in the past a gym membership, you probably know what kind of exercises you like to do. Get any equipment you need to make that possible.

Consider Workout Videos

If it makes it more interesting for you, a workout video is a good choice as well. Sometimes that bit of direction helps you to push through.

Consider a Gym Membership

You don’t have to buy equipment for your home if you’d rather get a gym membership. It’s a great excuse to get out of your house; just make sure you’re actually going to use it. Some of us are more likely to use the gym membership while others are more likely to workout at home. Pick the one that will work for you.

Use Workouts as a Break From Working

A workout is a great break from your work day. You don’t have to do a huge workout each time; even 10 minutes will get you going, especially if you do that a few times a day. Multiple fitness breaks are usually easiest with home fitness equipment, of course.

A workout is a nice way to refresh your mind as well as your body. You aren’t so focused on whatever you’ve been working on, and that can be a very good thing. Many people find their focus improves after a break. You may end up more productive. It’s a nice bonus to feeling more fit.

10 Open Source Tools to Help You Work at Home

2012-01-23T05:22:45Z

Software expenses can add up fast when you work at home. Fortunately, good software doesn’t always have to cost a lot of money. You can find open source software that costs less than other programs and may also be available free. These are some open source tools you may find useful when you work at home. Most are available for Windows, Mac and Linux systems, but check the download site to be sure.

Office Programs

OpenOffice

OpenOffice is the first open source program I ever tried out. It’s a good replacement for Microsoft Office, in my opinion. I’ve been using it for a few years now with no problems. It can read and write documents from other popular office software. You can even use it to create PDF files. It includes Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw and Base programs.

LibreOffice

I’ve seen some people say they prefer LibreOffice to OpenOffice. I haven’t tried this one myself. Some people have been happier with LibreOffice since OpenOffice was acquired by Oracle. Both work in much the same way, allowing you to create, read and write documents that work with other office software. It includes Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Math and Base programs, so that you can do all sorts of document work and data processing.

Blogging & Content Management

WordPress

My blog runs on it, so I can’t forget to mention WordPress as an open source tool for working at home. It’s hugely popular, really flexible and just generally nice to use for blogging. There are other open source blogging platforms out there, but WordPress is the big one, which means you can find all kinds of themes and plugins to make it even better.

Drupal

Drupal isn’t just about blogging; it has a lot of modules you can use to configure your website. I’ve used Drupal, but I’m more comfortable with WordPress personally. Still, there are a number of themes and modules you can add to it to make your site look and run just the way you want it to.

Graphics

Inkscape

Inkscape is for creating vector graphics in SVG format. Their goal is to have abilities similar to Illustrator and similar programs. There are some performance problems reported, but overall people like this one.

GIMP

GIMP is a Photoshop alternative. It’s more for working on photographs and other bitmap images rather than vectors. It’s very powerful and flexible. You can import brushes to make your projects even more interesting.

Audio

Audacity

Audacity is a great tool for recording and editing sound files. It’s a good choice if you want to record a podcast. It can edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files, cut and splice, or change the speed of a recording.

Productivity

FreeMind

FreeMind is great if you like mind mapping. You can use it for a variety of projects, research, brainstorming and so forth. You can use links in the nodes, making it easier to connect to relevant files or websites. You can export your maps to HTML so you can share your projects online easily.

FreeMind does have some weaknesses. It has minimal image support, and really isn’t made for multiple users. HTML links do not work on all computers. That said, it’s still overall a good program.

Task Coach

Task Coach is great if you like having a to do list. You can synchronize it between your computer and iPhone/iPad. The computer versions are free, while there is a small charge for the iOS versions.

You can use Task Coach to track your progress as you go through the different parts of the tasks you set up. It can track how long you take on tasks and the budget you’ve allowed for it.

Security

KeePass

KeePass is a free way to manage your keywords in a secure manner. You probably know how much trouble it is keeping track of your passwords and creating secure ones. You just have to remember your master password. It uses a strong encryption technique to protect your passwords.

One of the great parts is that you can carry it on a USB stick, allowing you to move between computers with your passwords. This is quite handy if you use more than one computer in your work.

Do you have any favorite open source programs you use when working at home?

5 Ways to Cope When You’re Tired of Being Frugal

2012-01-19T05:30:36Z

Living on a budget and trying to save money isn’t always fun. Sometimes you just wish for a splurge, but you know you can’t afford one. Other times you’re just tired of always thinking about ways to spend less. What do you do when you’re tired of being frugal?

It’s not always easy. There are so many temptations to break the habit, whether it’s hearing from friends and family the fun things they’ve been doing or what they’ve been buying, or the commercials you can hardly avoid on television and online. Still, there are ways to deal with it when you’re tired of it all.

1. Allow small splurges.

What is it you miss most? Is there a way to get it more cheaply?

You may miss going out to see movies, for example. Movie ticket prices have gone up quite a bit, and don’t always fit well into a frugal budget. If you’re lucky enough to have a discount movie theater near you, however, you may be able to see movies somewhat later than others for quite a bit less. There’s a theater in our area, for example, that has $2 tickets, far more affordable that what we’d pay elsewhere.

You can also think about the little treats you enjoy and set a budget for it. If you miss chocolate, for example, you may be able to get chocolate chips and put them in the freezer. Nibbling just a couple rather than having an entire candy bar can save you money so long as you have the self control to not eat too many a day.

2. Tell people what you want if they’re looking for a present for you.

If you miss going out to eat, suggest gift cards to your favorite restaurant as a gift when you have a birthday or Christmas coming up. This may not feel as personal as some people would like, but if that’s what you want more than whatever else someone would buy you, it’s a good gift.

If there’s some other splurge you want that’s within the range of a gift from someone else, let them know when they want gift ideas for you. Sometimes it works out.

3. Look at free ways to get what you want.

It’s amazing what you can get for free sometimes. Libraries are wonderful if you miss getting new books to read, for example. Just how wonderful depends on the libraries in your area and the selection they have in the types of books you like to read. Remember that many libraries are networked to others in your area, and you may be able to order books from other locations.

Also see if there’s an active Freecycle group in your area. You can ask for things you’d like to get. I’ve seen people in my local group ask for things like exercise bikes and get them.

4. Review your financial goals.

You’re being frugal for a reason. It can help you deal with the frustration of being frugal if you remind yourself why you’re going through all that. Are you saving so that you can pay down credit cards or other debts? Think about the benefits of getting rid of those. If you’re being frugal because it’s the only way you can pay all your living expenses, think about how your situation would change if you weren’t managing your money so carefully.

5. Take joy in meeting your financial goals.

Don’t just think of being frugal as a long term goal. Think of your short term goals too. It may be to save a particular amount over a particular month or to cut a particular expense. Having goals where you can see the results is a big help in making frugality more interesting.

Make sure your goals are something you can achieve and you know how you’re going to achieve them. If they aren’t realistic, you’ll be more frustrated than happy with the process.

7 Big Mistakes Most People Make With a New Online Business

2012-01-16T06:10:28Z

When you start an online business, you can’t help but make some mistakes. We all do, as it’s a part of the learning process. That said, if you’re aware of the mistakes you can either avoid them or stop making them a little sooner than you would otherwise. Recognizing these mistakes won’t keep you from making other mistakes, but it might improve your learning curve.

Mistake #1: Buying everything for your business that comes along.

List building tools. Business automation tools. Business information and advice.

One thing you learn very quickly when you run a business online is that there’s a ton of information and tools out there for sale, all promising to help you grow your business more quickly. Some of them will even deliver on that promise.

The problem is that many people buy too many things and then never make use of them. Buy a bunch of automation tools, and you probably won’t use them effectively, especially if you don’t really understand what they’re automating or how to do it yourself. Buy too much information and you’ll either waste too much time reading rather than taking action, or you’ll forget about it and never read what you paid for.

Which leads nicely into…

Mistake #2: Spending too little on your business.

Sure, you might be starting out on a shoestring, and you’re determined to bootstrap your way up. It’s possible to grow an online business without spending a ton, but spending some money on your business is an excellent idea.

Yes, some people have done well starting out without spending a single penny, but you’re making things harder than they have to be by refusing to spend on little things such as a domain name, hosting, email list management, and carefully chosen tools and information to grow your business.

Yes, much of that can be had for free. Free is not always the right choice. A free website is at the whim of the company hosting it. Managing your email list yourself is asking for trouble either when your ISP says you’re sending out too much email or you get a spam complaint from someone too lazy to unsubscribe properly.

Free productivity tools can be great, but they can vanish over time. Free information is a wonderful way to get started, but you often have to buy information products when you want to get into the serious details.

There’s a balance between mistakes one and two. Think before you spend. Don’t fall for a pretty sales letter; consider whether or not you really need what is being offered and if you’re ready to use it. Most products will still be there later if it’s not something you need immediately. You’ll save a lot if you limit purchases to what you need at the time.

Mistake #3: Fail to know what’s working and what isn’t.

It’s not always easy to know where traffic and customers are coming to your website. I’ve had my site clobbered by traffic where it wasn’t at all clear how people were learning about me, as it mostly came from people pasting my domain name into the address bar or searching on it. I had to do research to find the articles causing that. The articles mentioned my domain, but had no live links to my site, so it was difficult. Still, I was able to figure it out.

You probably won’t have that problem too often. Most times you can use the data you get from your hosting or from services such as Google Analytics to figure out what’s driving traffic to your site. From there you need enough tracking to see which traffic is converting for you or not to learn what kinds of things are working for you. You want to focus on what works and decide if the stuff that isn’t working is worth trying to improve.

Many people ignore this part. They get traffic, they earn money, they’re happy. The problem is that you don’t really know what’s effective for you, and so you don’t know where to focus your efforts. Sometimes that really slows down the growth of your business and your income.

Mistake #4: Imitating the competition.

You should absolutely know what your competition is doing, but you shouldn’t just be following in their footsteps. It’s much better to make your own path. Sure, there will be similarities to your competition, but get creative and make your business stand out. Find a way to do it better, more quickly or more cheaply. There’s always a way to stand out.

Mistake #5: Fail to prioritize.

Every day you work on your business, the first thing you do is decide what to work on. Most people will choose based on what they feel like working on at the moment. It’s one of the great parts of working for yourself, after all. It’s just not always the right choice.

The first thing you should do each day is decide what’s most important to get done that day. It may not be your favorite part of your business, but if it needs to get done, that’s it. You need to do it because it’s not happening otherwise.

Social networking, for example, is something many people love, and it can be valuable to your online business. The problem is that many people spend too much of their day on it, and the returns aren’t what they should be for the amount of time spent. If that’s the case, you need to be more careful about how you spend your time.

Mistake #6: Starting too many projects at once.

I’m great for this mistake still. I get too many ideas, and it’s hard to keep up with them all. It’s very much a good thing that I don’t try to start all the websites I think of, because it wouldn’t work. There just isn’t that much time in the day.

Start with one website. Work on it, marketing it, tweaking it and try to make it profitable before you allow yourself a new project.

Don’t fall for the bit about if you can get one site making $1 a day, it should be easy to get 100 sites making $100 a day. It sounds great, but it’s just not true. Some will do better, some won’t, and in the meantime you’re increasing the amount of work you have to do to keep up with all those sites. Work that little $1 a day site and learn what you need to know before you start the next one.

It’s possible to run a ton of sites, but it usually involves outsourcing and more experience than you have when you’re starting out. Save your extra ideas for when you know what you’re doing. Then, if you want to give it a try, go for it. Be prepared for the kind of work involved before you try it.

Mistake #7: Fail to test.

Just because something is working for you doesn’t mean it can’t work better. Take some time to test different parts of your sales process and you may find ways to earn more money even if traffic to your site doesn’t increase.

You don’t have to change big things to make a difference. A single word or two may be all you need to change, or the color or placement of your “buy now” button. Simple things can make a big difference.

You don’t want to make big changes all at once because they can disguise which changes are most effective. If change A makes people more interested but change B discourages customers, it’s going to be really hard to tell that you should keep change A, for example.

Give any changes you make some time to work. One day is not always enough, as any difference over a short period of time can be a fluke. A week or so is enough to see what’s happening, depending on how much traffic you get and what your current conversion rate is.

Whatever mistakes you make, don’t get too down about them. It happens to all of us. It’s not the mistakes you make that are bad for your business so much as what you do about them. Failing to learn from your mistakes is the biggest mistake of all.

When Is It Okay to Lie on Your Sales Page?

2011-12-29T00:02:15Z

It’s very common online still to feel that the sales pages you see online are misleading, if not flat out lying about the product they’re offering. It’s such a problem that the FTC has been trying to clamp down, no easy task on something that changes as fast as the internet does. With all the lies out there, is it okay for you to lie on your own sales page?

Personally, I say no. I really hope you do too.

I don’t just mean big lies about product functionality or what you’re offering. I include little lies such as the price or product being available for a limited time when it isn’t or claiming that the product has previously been sold for a higher price or will increase in the future when you have no intention of doing so. Such lies can easily get you into legal trouble, and some payment processors now review such claims and enforce price or availability claims for you.

“But I Have a Great Product!”

Let’s suppose you have a great product to sell, something you know is perfect for your customer base. But you’re concerned it’s going to be a hard sell. Can you lie then?

Why would you? If the product is that good, there should be plenty of truth to tell about it. A lie could actually weaken the product’s quality in a buyer’s eyes, as it will no longer meet expectations. If you think you have to lie in that kind of situation, you need help in writing your sales pages. Time to find a great copywriter and explain the product to him or her.

“But My Competition Lies. I Need to Compete!”

There are times when you shouldn’t give a damn what your competition is doing, or more to the point, when you shouldn’t imitate them. When you believe they’re lying is one of those times. It doesn’t matter what they’re doing, it matters what you do. You don’t want to risk your reputation on a lie. Leave that for those who don’t recognize the value of a good reputation in business.

Seriously. Think of Your Reputation

The problem with lying isn’t just the potential for legal trouble, although that can be plenty serious, and could cost you your entire business. But even if you don’t get legal troubles, lying eventually means the loss of your reputation. That cuts down the odds of your future success.

If you care about your home business, take care of its reputation and your own. Develop a reputation as someone who offers quality products and/or services, and your business is more likely to grow. Spoil that with a deliberate lie, and you’ll ruin whatever trust you’ve gained by your work in the past.

A lie may improve your sales, there’s no doubt of that. But increasing sales doesn’t matter if it increases your refund rate, especially as payment processors look poorly upon accounts with high refund rates. You also lose your chance at future sales if you lose the trust of customers.

What About Exaggeration?

What if you’re “merely” exaggerating a claim? Is that okay?

Come on. Really. Do you really need to ask that?

Especially if you want to meet rules set forth by the FTC, you had better be able to prove any claims you make, and know what average results are. You also have to do so clearly. No teeny, tiny disclaimers about results being atypical.

I know sometimes people get amazing results from things they do. That doesn’t mean everyone does, and it doesn’t mean everything you try to sell must get amazing results. What matters is that the results are good enough to make people want to buy it, and that they have a good chance of having such success if they do whatever it is they’re supposed to do.

I’ll admit that it’s sometimes hard to tell what’s a lie and what isn’t, mostly because what’s possible for one person won’t be possible for another. You may have had success doing something, but it won’t always translate for others.

How Much Do Your Kids Matter When You’re Applying For a Work at Home Job?

2011-12-28T23:30:25Z

The reason most people decide they want to work at home is to be there for their kids. It’s a good reason. You have the potential to be there more for your kids and you might get away without paying for daycare, although that’s not always true for work at home parents. But when you’re applying for a work at home job, how much do your kids matter?

That depends on who you’re thinking about at the moment. The kids, yourself or your potential employers.

The Kids

If you’re going to be home for your kids, but working at the same time, you need to figure out which jobs are going to let you do that. What’s going to work around the things you do with your children during the day?

Are they young enough to take naps or old enough that they go to school? How independently do they play? What kinds of activities do you intend to involve your children in? Are you willing to put them in daycare part time if necessary? Do you have alternatives if you need to work during the day while the kids are around?

These things matter when you’re figuring out what kind of work you want to do from home. There’s nothing wrong with using daycare while working at home if that’s what it takes to earn a living, but for most at home parents, that isn’t the goal or even close to it. Still, unless you can work exclusively at times when your kids don’t usually need you, it’s best to acknowledge the possibility.

You should also consider how you will handle things when the kids get sick. Even if you work when they’re gone or sleeping, that’s going to be an issue at some point. How will you get any work done? Will you need to take some time off?

Yourself

Your needs matter too. One of the hardest parts about working from home for many parents is the lack of interaction with other adults. Being home with your kids is great, but sometimes it’s hard on the brain.

Then you have to consider when you’ll really be able to work at home. It’s great to say that you’ll work nights or early mornings so that you’ll always be able to focus on your kids during the day, but will you really be able to do that? Really? Be honest with yourself.

It’s hard staying up late and giving up evenings with your husband (for moms, giving up evenings with your wife if you’re an at home dad) after the kids have gone to bed, or getting up at dark o’clock to get some work in while everyone else sleeps. Make sure you choose the most workable schedule for you when you commit to working at home.

Your Potential Employers

Honestly, your potential employers usually won’t care in the least about your children. When they hire someone, they want someone who will do a good job working from home, kids or no. When you’re writing a cover letter or going through the interview process, don’t keep emphasizing that you want to be there for your kids. Focus on what you bring to them as an employee, not on the benefits you expect to gain from working at home.

When you work at home, you’re supposed to handle things like your children without problems that will impact the work you do. Certainly the kids will have an impact on your work sometimes; that’s true even when you work outside the home. You’d better know how you’re going to handle such issues.

I don’t mean that you can never mention your children to potential employers. When I interviewed for my medical transcription job, one of the interviewers concerns was that I was about to graduate college. She was wondering if I would leave the job right after graduation and get work outside the home. As I was expecting my first baby at the time, I did then explain that I intended to stay at home for my child.

That was the only mention, however. Caring for my baby was my reason to work at home, and an easy reassurance for my employer that I wouldn’t spend months in training and then vanish.

That’s what you have to think about if you mention your children. Are they the best answer you can give to your employer for the particular question they’re asking? If asked why you want to work at home, for example, do you want to focus on how you want to care for your children or on another reason? There are so many other benefits after all, such as flexibility, the lack of a commute, or better yet, an interest in that particular kind of job. Employers want to hire people who will do the job well after all, not people who just want the benefits. Think about what’s most important to your employer when you’re being interviewed.

Don’t Insult Working Moms

2011-12-28T22:41:11Z

I came across an article the other day in support of working moms. It came about due to a forum thread that said the lack of stay at home moms is what’s wrong with the U.S. No explanation of what exactly is wrong, though. There were plenty of things that bothered me about the whole deal.

1. Why the focus on moms?

This is one of the things that drives me up the wall. Why blame only moms for putting their kids in daycare and going to work? Why not the dads? I have two very competent stay at home dads in my family. Don’t tell me it can’t be done.

Sure, it’s more common and more traditional for moms to be more involved in child care. Unless you’re talking about pregnancy or breastfeeding, it doesn’t really have to be that way. Dads can do plenty, and they usually enjoy it.

2. Daycare is a perfectly acceptable option.

I may be an at home mom myself, but I have absolutely no problem with putting kids in daycare if that’s what the family needs.

My mother raised four of us on her own, so I speak from personal experience when I say daycare doesn’t have to be all that bad. It is not having someone else raise your child. They’re helping, yes, but so are the schools. Believe me, my parents still had plenty of influence on my choices throughout life, even my dad who I didn’t always see that much of as he didn’t always live nearby or even in the same state.

That said, I know daycare gets expensive fast. You do have to look at whether having both parents work makes sense in the face of daycare costs. Sometimes having a parent stay at home makes more financial sense. Still, that doesn’t mean working moms are in the wrong.

3. Not all stay at home moms are good at it.

It’s like anything else. Some stay at home moms are wonderful, attentive, caring, hard working mothers. Others aren’t. There are plenty of times when it’s better for the kids for both parents to work and have them go to daycare.

I don’t think you’re bad at being a stay at home mom if you aren’t up to June Cleaver’s level or anything. If staying at home is more of a miserable thing for you because you’d rather have a career, get out and get one. You won’t be called a bad parent by me for it.

4. Staying at home can be stressful.

Many people view being a stay at home mom as this wonderful, unstressed lifestyle. Somehow even the financial troubles just aren’t that big a problem for them. They make it work and life is good.

That’s not true for everyone. If you go to one income and can’t pay all the bills for little things you need such as rent, food and electricity, that’s stressful. Dealing with children can be stressful. Really and truly, the life of a stay at home mom isn’t all television and bonbons.

Is it less stressful for some than for others? Absolutely! That doesn’t mean it’s stress free for every stay at home parent. Financial challenges and other problems cause plenty of stress for others.

5. No acknowledgement of the real financial struggles many families face.

The people saying moms should just cope with the cutting back financially and stay at home have no concept of how much many families struggle. It’s not always a choice between a bigger house or a smaller house, or a newer or older car. It’s getting by, period.

Yes, some families are fortunate enough to have circumstances where they can get by on a minimal income and have one parent home. That’s the exception. We can’t all find extremely low rent, have family provide a home, inherit one, or otherwise get off cheap on housing costs. Some places are more expensive to live, and if that’s where your work is, it’s really not so simple as packing up to move someplace cheaper.

Then there’s food costs. Frankly, if the only way you can have one parent stay at home is to go on food stamps or other assistance, you need to look at increasing your income. That can be by working at home, I don’t mind that (obviously). I just don’t think you should use assistance to support a lifestyle choice, no matter how much you love your kids more than money. Use public assistance to keep going when you must, no problem there, but not as a lifestyle when you have other ways to get by.

6. An old car isn’t always a good solution.

Some people in the forum posts mentioned having an old car as one way to cut down on costs. That’s great when it works, no car payments, but sometimes the repairs run more than a car payment would. What do you do then? Unless you live in an area with good public transportation or close enough to work to walk or bike, a car can be a necessity.

Older cars are going to hit that point where you have to repair them more often eventually, and although they can be quite cheap to own for a time, repair costs can be more than payments on a newer car. What are families supposed to do then? A single income family can’t always save up a few thousand for a newer used car.

7. Stop with the “Only have as many children as you can afford” thing.

This one always annoys me. Certainly, there comes a point where people know they’re having more children than they can afford, but that’s not always what happened at the time the child was conceived or was born. Circumstances change. Jobs are lost, businesses close, incomes decrease. You can’t ever be certain that you can “afford” your children the entire 18 years you’ll be raising them, never mind whether or not you’ll be able to help with college.

Yes, I do agree that parents should think if their current circumstances will allow them to afford a child. It’s not my place to tell them what their final decision should be, however. If my husband and I had waited until we knew on paper that we could afford children, we wouldn’t have started when we did. We made it work anyhow, and while it’s been a struggle, we haven’t had to go on any sort of public assistance, and are finally making progress on the credit card debts.

8. Working moms spend plenty of time with their kids.

It has been shown that working moms spend more time with their kids now than stay at home moms did back in 1965. Dads are more involved too. Sure, stay at home moms spend still more time, but it’s not likely that the average kid is lacking for time with his or her parents due to being sent to daycare.

9. Women benefit from working.

I love the work I do at home. I don’t believe I would cope at all well as a stay at home mom if I didn’t have my business. It gives me something to think about beyond my home and children. That’s a good thing.

There’s also the money moms lose from not working. I don’t just mean in the moment. I mean saving for retirement as well as building a solid base for her career, missing out on promotions and so forth. It’s a long term income loss that can be hard on parents long after their children are grown.

That’s a big part of why I’m such a fan of working from home. Maybe you don’t need to earn the equivalent of a full time job, but at least you can keep some money coming in and some job skills current. Life’s uncertain, and that’s one way I cope.

I have a lawyer friend who tells me that most stay at home moms he knows don’t really understand what they’re losing out on by not working. He’s dealt with them on Social Security issues, and it basically comes down to if you don’t contribute, you don’t get anything. Sometimes that’s a huge problem.

10. The United States isn’t easy on families.

If you take a look at work policies around the Western world, the U.S. doesn’t look remotely family friendly. There’s a lack of parental leave available, childcare standards aren’t as good as other countries, education isn’t as good, the list goes on. I’d call that a bigger problem than whether or not mothers stay home with their kids.

11. It’s possible that working parents are better for kids.

Now, all kinds of conclusions can be drawn from studies, nonetheless it is possible that working mothers really aren’t bad for their kids.

12. Women have often worked outside the home throughout history.

Women working outside the home is nothing new, and they didn’t just do so before marriage or motherhood.

13. I absolutely support at home parents.

Despite everything on this rant, I absolutely support at home parents, whether it’s the mother or the father. I wouldn’t run this site if I didn’t. It just makes me mad when people glance at working moms and declare them to be awful parents. They aren’t.

There’s nothing wrong with raising kids in the tight financial situation that often results from being a single income family. I suspect there’s some good in it, as kids then learn that they don’t get everything they want all the time.

14. Parents supporting their kids is the most important thing.

What matters most in the long run is that parents support their kids. I don’t just mean financially. I mean educationally, emotionally and so forth. You’re a parent and you’re probably doing the best you can for your kids. That doesn’t mean you can’t do your best for yourself too. If your kids are loved and know it, there’s a good chance they’ll be fine whether you’re at home or working.

How Ready Are You and Your Business For the New Year?

2011-12-27T17:36:42Z

While you don’t have to make resolutions if you don’t want to for the new year, this is a great time of year to get yourself organized and decide where you want to take your business over this next year. Have you taken some time to prepare yet? These are some things you should do to get yourself ready for the new year.

1. Get Your Finances in Order

The end of the year means tax time is coming all too soon. If you’re paying quarterly estimated taxes, you have to be ready for those by January 15. But even if you don’t need to do that, you need to get ready for filing your taxes by April – although I’d recommend sooner if you think you’re getting money back.

If you use an accountant or bookkeeper, the sooner you get the financial paperwork they need over to them, the sooner they can take care of you. It’s just less of a scramble if you don’t both have to rush to get things done at the last minute.

2. Assess the Past Year

Was this a good year or a bad year for your business? What went right and what went wrong? Anything you wish you’d done differently?

This is an initial step in setting goals for next year. It’s hard to know where you realistically can go if you don’t know where you’ve been. You have to be sure that the steps you’ve been taking have been effective. If not, you need to figure out what’s been going wrong. Pay special attention to the things that went really, really right, and the things that just plain went wrong.

3. Review Your Business and Personal Goals

While I don’t do resolutions, I do like to have goals. It’s fun to meet them, even when they’re tough. Many relate to my business, but there are goals for me too, such as trying to get in better shape,.

Think about what you’d like your business to do over the next year, and make sure you consider how you’re going to get there. Saying you want to earn $5000 a month is a lovely goal, but if you have no idea how you’ll get there it will be much harder to reach. Make sure you include actionable goals, not just results.

4. Decide What Your Business Focus Will Be

You should always know what the main focus of your business is, and this is a good time to reassess what you’re doing. Do you need to change your focus slightly? What’s working for you? What isn’t?

5. Review Your Networking Strategy

How much do you interact with others in your home business? Are you taking the time to network with your fellow home business owners as well as with potential customers and clients? How effectively?

If it doesn’t come all that naturally to you, networking can be a pain. If it does come naturally, it may be one of those things you have to keep under control because it turns into excessive socializing that takes away productive work time. Or maybe you have it balanced just right. However things are going, take a look to make sure you’re networking effectively, whether online or in person.

6. Check Out the Competition

It’s a generally good idea to keep an eye on what your competition is doing with their business. While you don’t want to exactly copy their offerings, you do want to know how your own compare. Sometimes there’s inspiration in what others do, so long as you make it your own.

Consider the products and or services they offer, the look of their website, their website rankings, backlinks and so forth. You don’t want to be an imitator, you want to compare favorably to them.

7. Pick Something New to Try

Rather than stick to the same old, same old with your home business, settle on one new something you want to do with it. It could be video marketing, a new product or service you want to offer, a new place to network, a skill you’ve been meaning to pick up, something.

8. Par-tay!

Hey, it’s the new year coming up. Surely you get to have some fun.