Not all home-based business opportunities are created equal, and since every person’s needs are unique, there is no single home-based business opportunity that can claim that it is a perfect fit for everyone. If you take the time to assess your needs thoroughly before you choose which home-based business opportunity or opportunities to pursue, you may avoid pouring time and money into business ventures that end up being a poor fit for you. Parents that would like to work from home are likely to have needs that may be different from other home-based business owners. This is especially true for parents like me who work from home because they have decided to stay home to care for their children.
If you are a stay at home parent looking to work from home, the criteria that I am about to list may seem obvious. Before my son was born, however, I would not have known to look for these things while looking for the right business opportunity. Flexible schedules are an absolute must. You need work that you can do at the times of day that you are able to work. For example, right now it is 11 o’clock at night. I get most of my freelance writing work done at night, after my son goes to bed. The times that you will be able to work will be unique to your family.
The amount of work that you will be required to do is also a big consideration. It is not always easy to avoid over scheduling yourself, especially if you have many potential clients. It is important that you are realistic about how much work you will be able to produce or you will not be able to complete it all, which will leave clients unhappy and unwilling to offer you more work. Based upon my experiences, I like to say that it is better to do less work better than to do more work of lower quality.
Another thing to consider is the amount and type of customer contact that you will have. Any parent of an infant or child can tell you that having kids around means that it is not always possible for them to answer their phone calls – thank goodness for voice mail. My ten-month-old is obsessed with my phone and taking it out and answering it in front of him is a recipe for disaster. You will definitely want to minimize the amount of business calls that you will be receiving during the time that you are caring for your kids. If you must receive some calls, be sure that your employer understands that you are likely to be returning calls once or twice a day, while your child or children are napping.
It is definitely possible to combine working from home and being a stay at home parent. With a little careful thought and advance planning, you will not only select a work at home opportunity that will work for you and your lifestyle, you will find one that you enjoy.