How To Be a Work-at-Home Mom

When everything has been set for work-at-home venture, particularly the necessary gear and your family, don't just rush into earning the income you ever dream of. Here are some factors you may consider to stay productive.

SET A SCHEDULE
Plot a specific time for your work-at-home career. Stay focused, if you are then you can accomplish more even in less time.

ESTABLISH BOUNDARIES
Create a designated workspace. If you don't have a homeoffice yet (like me), put the kids in the other room. But when my kids decide not to be isolated, prepare for the interruptions. In my case, as a work-at-home mom, I introduce the nature of my work to my kids so they can recognize whether I am working or not. They can come near me, but if they see I'm working they never nudge my arm.

EXPLORE

Because I love exploring the world wide web, I was inspired to do my own site. I’ve tried tabulas, bravenet, angelfire, webs, wix, googlesites and doodle before I decided to stay on WordPress (then moved to Blogger years after). Perhaps someone noticed my blog, then one day I received an email about article writing job. $3 for a 500-word article is not a bad start so I accepted the job offer. That was my first time so I thought it’s a good way to explore how work-at-home runs. I’ve made more than 40 articles and got paid well. Months after, an email said that there’ll be no more articles to do. It’s okay, at least I got a headstart on being an online freelancer.

COOPERATE

I have a friend / schoolmate / neighbor who was seeking a data entry personnel and so she hired me when she knew I have a WordPress blog. It seemed that it was one of her qualifications - having knowledge on WordPress. We built a travel site thru WordPress for a client and I’ve done web research, image and data management, etc. It was my first time to setup a Skype account, screensharing, FileZilla, etc for instructions and work files. I realized work-at-home life is exciting. You are working with someone who’s just at the other end of the line yet you have to cooperate to get things done.

BE RESOURCEFUL

There was a graphic designing company. The Australian employer was a family man with 3 kids. His requirement was to employ online freelancers that are single only or married but without kids yet. I was initially not qualified but my bestfriend told him about my credentials which impressed him (maybe) and when he interviewed me we got along well (it was like more of a chitchat than an interview 😉)…so I’m hired. Yay! I worked for almost 2 years as Management Trainee then promoted to Account Manager. He was the one who always told me to “Ask Google” whenever I have some questions regarding work. He never spoonfed the knowledge. I think he wants me to learn from my own so I have to be resourceful – watch tutorials, read forums, etc. And I thanked him for that. It was thru Odesk, now Upwork, in an hourly rate and rendered 30 to 40 hours per week. We are an all Filipino work-at-home team basing in Cebu and Bohol hired by my bestfriend who was the first hired employee who eventually became a VP. Unfortunately, the company was dissolved but we (I mean all of us) find another financial resources.

working on Zendesk tickets

LEARN AND EARN

Because we need jobs to financially support ourselves, my bestfriend started her own graphic designing company and recalled the team. We’re back to our work-at-home system. To make use of manpower and save costs, we have to multi-task as a manager and a designer. We already learned some basic graphic designing thru Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop from the previous company and we are developing it more. Every time there’s a revision request from the client, we search the net on how to do it so we can save time and cost rather than passing it onto others. School years are over but we never cease to educate ourselves.

PERSEVERANCE

Designing is really my hobby ever since. And when I learned how to do it digitally thru work-at-home jobs, I nurtured it. To make use of my newfound skills, I entered a graphic design contest site, DesignCrowd, and submitted entries. Don't stop and persevere to do the best. Praise God for my talent, so far I've won 3 dollar-prize contests already! Real help! The prizes I got were used to pay our monthly housing amortizations when my husband was stuck without a job.

TIME MANAGEMENT

I do not rely only on my graphic design job as there are times that we don’t have projects. My bestfriend/workmate use the terms "busy wave and idle wave" of an online freelancer. So I tried data entry and currently have 3 clients already – Australian, Canadian, and American. Because of them I have new sets of learnings. I now know about Magento, Shopify, Big Commerce, email marketing and eBay! Woah! That’s a lot already to take in. And how I deal with my work-at-home clients, time management. Good thing they don’t send tasks at the same time so it’s okay, I can still breathe. Hahaha! But I always remember to comply the first task given before starting the next one.

I am thankful of this technology - being able to work at home online because...the advantages are too many to mention.

So mommy, go for it?

When you do your best, God never fails to do the rest.