Hi, how are you?
If you are a work at home mum and want to be successful with your own online business like many women I got to know since 2001 when I started as online business owner next to my dayjob, then you need the right characteristics. Some people are just more suited to doing this than others. Let’s take a look at some of the characteristics that you will require in this article.
Are you organized?
To work from home successfully you need good organizational skills. This starts with your computer. You will need to keep important information saved about your online business so you need a good system to do this. If you just save stuff anywhere then it will be difficult to find the information you need and it will waste a lot of your time.
When you have something new to save put into a folder on your computer where it will be easy for you to remember. If a folder doesn’t exist for the new information then create one. Be sure to back up your important files regularly.
And you need a fast computer with a good webcam, good sound and enough memory to play videos.
Can you handle distractions?
Working from home means that you do not have a boss to keep you in check. You are your own boss so you need to be disciplined and avoid time consuming distractions. We are not talking about handling the demands of your children here.
Other distractions such as TV, people dropping by unannounced, social media and other things can really steal your time.
If you feel the temptation to watch some TV, spend hours on social media or do anything else that will steal your valuable time then ask yourself this question “is this more important than my online business?” The answer should always be no.
There is nothing wrong with spending some time relaxing in front of the TV or checking out what your family and friends are doing on social media. Just schedule a specific amount of time for this and stick to it.
Learn to say no to people. If you get a call from someone who wants you to spend time with them at the mall or the park then politely refuse. And the same thing goes if somebody contacts you on Skype or WhatsApp ‘just to catch up’. This is OK once in a while but you don’t want to make a habit of it.
Do you have enough self discipline?
It is not easy to juggle the pressures of taking care of your children for instance or pets if you have them and running an online business from home. You need to have strong self discipline and use the available time that you have to work on your online business tasks.
To help you with this we recommend that you plan your day and have a “to do” list which shows the tasks that you need to complete. Your plan will not always work out as you expect especially if you have young children but it is better than not having a plan at all.
I personally use planners, journals and checklists a lot to force myself do stay focused.
Can you motivate yourself?
To be successful with your online business as a stay at home mom you will need to stay motivated and keep going even when your day hasn’t gone too well or you are tired. Create goals for your online business and make sure that you can see these so that they will motivate you.
Create a WHY statement which explains why you started your online business. This needs to conjure up strong emotions so that you will be raring to go and do whatever is necessary to make your online business a success.
Well, this was the first post for stay-at-home-mums. I hope that helped a bit?
Contact me now to share your thoughts, your personal stories or your personal tips or if you ant me to help you personally in any way.
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