I just read an article about starting a home – based business that rubbed me completely the wrong way. Of course, it may be more about me than it is about the author of the article, because it was mostly a good article. It is simply written from a different perspective than the one that I come from. I take my home – based businesses just as seriously as anybody else, even though I work part time because of my primary career as a stay at home mom. The article that I read seemed like it was written for home – based professionals who are primarily home – based professionals, as opposed to those of us who are primarily parents that own and operate home – based businesses.
Anyways, the article was on the topic of mistakes that one should avoid when starting a home – based business. One “mistake” that is listed is “getting pulled too often into distracting chores like laundry and child care”. Of course, since I am primarily a parent, child care is not exactly a distracting chore. It makes up ninety five percent of my existence during the time that the kids are awake.
In the spirit of respecting that the other article is a great piece which is simply written from a different perspective, I would like to share my own list of mistakes that people whose primary responsibility is parenting should avoid when starting their home – based businesses. Mistake number one that must be avoided at all costs is setting unrealistic expectations. Whether the expectations involve how many hours a week you can work, what time of day you can work, how much work you can take on, or something else entirely, keep it realistic. It is far better to begin cautiously and then add more work hours or increase your work load later on if you find that you can comfortably do so then it is to begin from an assumption that you will be able to work twenty hours a week, take on work to fill twenty hours a week, and then realize that unless you cut back your sleep time to five hours a night you can only really work ten to fifteen hours each week.
Other mistakes to avoid include not having set work hours, not having a dedicated work space, and not having a back up child care provider that you can call in case your original plan does not work out and you have to get to an important meeting. What else would you add to this list? I would love to know.