WORKING YOUR HOME BUSINESS
ALONGSIDE
YOUR FAMILY
Nancy Ann & Tom Wartman
Nancy Ann & Camille age 1 on left, Ruth (my sister) and
Roy age 8 months on right ~ photo taken at Usborne Books at Home National Convention June
1999
Ask yourself:
If I spend each day as I did today,
will I reach my goals?
The flexibility home businesses provide is awesome!
The opportunities are endless, yet the minimums are nice and low for times when your time
is needed elsewhere. Balancing family and business can be tricky. I have a successful
home business, which I conduct alongside home schooling & my 4 young children!
Here are some of my thoughts...
Our children are of utmost importance! We want to play cards
& games, take hikes, cook, explore and cuddle with them! We want to be there,
yet we need to have something to do ourselves, too! So, we have a home
business! Do we ever find it challenging to spend time with our kids AND grow a
business? Yes, we all do!
When I look at my baby I don't think of how I fit in feeding, bathing and rocking her. She's part of our family. That's how we see our home business - as part of our family. We nurture the business. The thought of stopping my home business would never cross my mind. What would that show my kids??? Our days are full of learning. The kids play or work by themselves sometimes and I can make calls or give them a special project while I make a phone call here or there or make some calls once my husband is home OR I may not make any calls that day. With consistent time and energy this business grows. It doesn't have to be scheduled from 1-3pm every day - there are probably a lot of people who have something planned during that time and I'd never be able to reach them.
When we go out shopping or to the zoo or museum we come in contact with lots of people - what a GREAT opportunity to talk with people about my business! When I do this I'm working right alongside our family's activities - my kids are having a blast & I'm building my business! Are other people interested in your business? Sure they are! You could start up a conversation about their kids & your kids. You could ask if they work outside the home. They'll tell you. Then you have the perfect opportunity to tell them about your home business. Now, in my company, Usborne Books at Home, I want people to join me! I want to share my "gold" with them! So, I invite them to join me in this business. If you simply tell someone how wonderful your bag of homemade cookies are, without offing to share them, you aren't sharing! You want to share your business with everyone you come in contact with and by getting out with your kids you are coming in contact with a lot of people! The "queen" of Sharing & Caring in network marketing is Ilene Meckley. She has great tapes and a book on this subject, and interview to help you!
I don't see our business as something to fit into our days. It is a
part of our lifestyle. I'm so pleased to have this way to exemplify goal setting,
work ethics, being your own boss, personal growth as an adult, and choosing who you work
with. I choose to work with people of high integrity and with similar values - be they
customers, hostesses, consultants, upline, downline, sister supervisors across the country
and an incredible home office.
Actually running my business doesn't take that much time each day
- I make a list of the main things I need to do with their phone numbers or addresses or
such:
call Mrs. Bigspender
call Ms. Platinum
call Lady Haveashow
email Ms. Newbie
email my group about new information, upcoming meetings, etc...
mail recruit packet to Sally Signup
make tomorrow's list
This may be a full business day for me, done in 5-10 minute bits throughout the day and, thus, I am successfully building my business. (The other calls with my business friends when we talk about the birthday cakes we're making - we both know that those are social calls with our great friends - that's not really business). I think sometimes we have a hard time realizing where the line is between social and business time with home businesses - that's part of the greatness - we love our jobs so much!
When I'm going to be making a lot of calls to customers... I let my kids
know earlier, so that if they need my attention, they can grab me before I begin.
I do mark out family days on our calendar and I don't work on those days.
I usually mark off 1 or 2 days after busy business days for museum trips or zoo trips or
picnics or whatever with the kids, partly as a reward for their being understanding while
I was trying to get a lot of orders in. We've earned several trips and have taken the kids
to Acapulco, Disney World, a cruise, Hawaii and Alaska to show them some of our earnings for hard work!!!
This is a family business for us and we work it alongside our children and our
other activities. Not just when they're taking naps. Sometimes I've taken my
babies with me. And my husband is wonderfully supportive, as this is something we're
doing for the whole family! Our home business benefits all of us!
I hope some of these ideas or thoughts might help you in your search for information
regarding working a home business alongside your family and your other activities.
20
Time Savers
1. Use a monthly calendar and a daily "to
do" list.
2. Maintain a Contact List for prospective Customers and Consultants.
3. Prioritize your "to do" list the night before. Decide who will be your
contacts (phone/email) each day. Write down their names and phone numbers.
4. Don't watch television during the day.
5. Eat a light lunch. (well.....)
6. Attend all the meetings available to you. Try other people's ideas. See someone
successful? Do what they do! You don't need to reinvent the wheel here!
7. Set aside unimportant things.
8. Use small segments of time productively. Get dressed 30 minutes early and make calls
before you leave for an appointment or before you get online!
9. Do two things at the same time. Listen to the news on the radio while getting dressed
instead of reading the newspaper.
10. Carry your calendar/date book/name list with you at all times to add new names &
new contacts you make with the phone number, important information, dates set, etc.
11. Eliminate clutter. Do you really need it? What would happen if you threw it away?
(I LOVE this one! I need to do this!)
12. The phone is your friend! It saves you hours.
13. Learn to say "no".
14. Handle paperwork once. DO IT NOW.
15. Read mail with a pen in hand. Respond immediately.
16. Delegate. Who else can do the job?
17. Concentrate on only one thing at a time until it is done.
18. Put "waiting time" to good use - read, write thank you notes, etc.
19. Don't worry - 40% of what we worry about never happens.
20. Don't waste time regretting what you didn't do.
By effectively using your time, you will end each
day with a feeling of well being and you will be energized because you reached your goals
for that day.
Just as a building is completed one brick at a time; your
dreams are reached one at a time.
Use as many of these ideas as you can or you have
wasted the last few minutes of your life that you can never regain.
We
love our home business of USBORNE BOOKS AT HOME and you might too!
Have you ever thought of having a home business? I hope you will think about joining
me! Now is a great time! Check into the rest of our website for more information!.
Send Us E-mail at NAWartman@aol.com |
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