Friday, September 6, 2013

Home Business Ideas For Moms

By Dee Blackmon


There are quite a lot of people today who face financial difficulties and want to supplement their income by starting their own business online. If you want to work online but don't really have much money to invest in it, you will still have various online options to consider.Before you consider a home business idea you should first have your budget ready. You should include the internet connection and cost of a new computer if you don't have one in your budget. An online business is easier since unlike a franchise business, you don't really have to invest thousands for starting a business. An online business can be started for free or under $100 quite easily. There are several free opportunities that you will find online today, especially affiliate businesses where you would not have to invest anything at all. However, you should know that there are also several scams and dishonest people online so you will have to be very careful when you research online.

If you have toddlers or preschool age children, keep a laundry basket filled with favorite toys and bring it out only during your work time. Blocks, books, and puzzles are great! Your children will look forward to the special time of day when they are allowed to play with their favorite toys and you can accomplish tasks in the same room with them while they play. Be sure to put the basket out of sight and reach when the business-related task is over to maintain the new and exciting allure of these toys. You will be tempted to place your preschooler in front of educational television and your older child with your extra laptop or smartphone, but resist the urge! Yes, they will be quiet and engrossed in the entertainment but it is a disservice to them and can very well have detrimental effects on their physical and mental development. Depending on age, you could allow 30 minutes - 1 hour of TV or tech gadget use per day per child, and planning those minutes to occur during your most intensely productive work sessions can be helpful.

If your profession requires your young children to have outside care for a couple of hours per day, consider a "mommy helper" instead. An older child or preteen who is not yet old enough to babysit alone can be a wonderful help to entertain your children while in the house with you and under your supervision. They will often work for a minimal amount compared to a daycare (clear with their parents first, of course) and it can be a positive first-time-job experience for them as well.Stop the marathon cleaning once you have completed the initial de-cluttering and cleaning of your house (see tip # 2)! You must have a daily plan, and different methods work for different situations. Consider dividing your weekly chores throughout the week: vacuum on Mondays, sweep and mop on Tuesdays, clean bathrooms on Wednesdays, etc. Wash a load (or two) of clothes daily, dry them, and put them away. Or, if you prefer a one day chore day, delegate 2 hours on Fridays for the basic cleaning routine. You will find that keeping the house uncluttered and organized will help you save time cleaning! If your children are old enough, involve them in the weekly chores. My oldest children vacuum and dust their own rooms, and one cleans the toilet and sink in their bathroom while the other cleans the bathtub. One sweeps the bathroom floor and the other mops it. Every week, they earn spending money by doing their chores well and without complaining. Spend 15 minutes a day (set a timer) removing clutter from one room/area or doing detailed cleaning (windows, corners, etc.) to stay on top of these "extra" chores. Be sure to daily put dishes in/empty the dishwasher, clean off the table, go through the mail, and put things back as you use them. It will change your outlook as well as your results!

If you already cook with creative variety and serve only the most nutritious meals without stress or fatigue, skip this tip. If, however, meal preparation is still overwhelming and takeout is becoming more and more of a regular option while you dream of the gourmet meals you will prepare in the future, here is the solution: Accept that it is completely okay for you to serve the same basic "family favorite" menu every single week. These are the meals you know your children love (nutritious, yes) and you have cooked them a million times so you do not have to spend a lot of brainpower preparing it. If there are 14 family favorites which are fairly quick and not terribly intensive to make, create a rotating two week menu. If you only have seven, repeat the same week over and over. Now that you have made your list of meals, pick a day to serve each one (Fridays are homemade pizzas at my house, for example. Mondays every-other-week: blackened chicken pasta with a salad. Sunday nights might include popcorn, apples, and cheese. You get the idea.) Now, this will take a few minutes, but you only have to do this once! List the ingredients needed for each week's meals (either on paper or a spreadsheet where you can easily reorganize or even a grocery list app on your phone). Reorganize the list by the item's location in your favorite supermarket (canned goods, meats, produce, etc.) Now, you have your weekly grocery list! Make copies to take with you to the grocery store to mark off as you fill your basket. Stop stressing and buy the same things over and over! If you want to cook something different and fun on the weekend or once a week, leave space to write in a new recipe's ingredients and designate a day to prepare it. Adapt this to work for you and your lifestyle.

The truth is that quality and quantity of time are important with your children. It is easy to forget that just because the children are always with you doesn't mean you are actually with them. When your mind is focused on work and you do not drive away from a literal office building, it can be even more difficult to put work aside and give your children your undivided attention. It is critical that you find a way to connect with them! Try setting a timer for 30 minutes a few times a day to look your child in the eye as he or she talks to you and play with him or her or accomplish something fun together. Also, after dinner is over and the kitchen is clean, spend time reading with your children and showing them affection. They need you, and not just your physical presence, but your mental and emotional presence as well. Giving them your full attention during specifically scheduled times will help you not to break the "appointment" but it will also help your children not to be as needy during the times when you must focus on your professional tasks. They will come to relish and excitedly anticipate their one-on-one daily times with you (and you will be amazed at how connected you will feel to them and how it will bless your own heart!)

You probably already know what they are without much introspection, but take a few minutes anyway and list the activities you tend to use as diversions from your responsibilities. Maybe it is a social network or television channel or... you get the idea. Whatever it is that helps you procrastinate needs to be contained in a specific time period and then put away for the day. For example, you can have your cup of coffee in the morning while you spend 30 minutes of computer time on personal interests and then check back in with e-mail for 15 minutes after lunch. The important thing is that you have a plan and stick to it so that the diversions stop eating the time you could be connecting with your children and/or profiting in your job. Also, think through your routine and find ways to make it more streamlined: Do your quick wipe of the sink and brushing of the toilet as soon as you finish your getting ready routine in the morning and don't go back in there until necessary. Clean up after your meal before you leave the kitchen. Have your older children bring their dirty laundry and put it in the washing machine instead of trekking to each room to do it yourself. Find ways to save steps and, subsequently, conserve energy and time. You will find you get better and better at this as you begin to practice it.

Jobs for College Students A lot of young college students graduate from the university without been able to secure a lucrative job. By launching your own money making site you can create a steady income all around the clock. On the otherside, this kind of business is also ideal for college students as they can simultaneously manage their academics as well as business by working for just a couple of hours each day. Setting up a brand new site is not as difficult as most people think as you can easily get website templates for as little as five dollar. You also have the opportunity of downloading a free HTML editor to setup your own website within a few minutes. Once your site is up and running you can adopt various online marketing strategy to promote your product and generate traffic to your site at no cost at all.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment