It’s no secret work at home moms — hundreds of thousands of them are building small empires in the convenience of their own homes. One thing that separates a successful work at home mom with the work at home mom who is struggling to stay afloat, may not be a so much as a different business but a different business plan.
I’ve heard so many work at home mom “wanna be’s” with the very same complaint, ” I can’t do that.” They are looking too hard because there’s so many opportunities for work at home moms now, more than ever! Most of us aren’t even natural mothers so to speak, we learn from the advice of other mothers who have raised families. We take their advice on stain removal tips, home remedies, child rearing, discipline and so why shouldn’t we take the advice of successful work at home moms in the same respect?
Every work at home mom shares the same associated risk of going into business early on when drawing up a business plan. The business plan can make or break a work at home mom before the business ever starts because the business will depend on the work at home business plan. Because I am a work at home mom, I’ve written a number of business plans, some more successful than others and most of the first few turned out to be complete flops. You don’t have to be a trained, educated professional to go into business, anyone with a dream can try but if you realistically devise a winning business plan from the get go, it can save a lot of tears in the long run.
Here are a few tips for developing a winning work at home mom business plan for your home-based business. Of course it depends on the type of business you choose to go into but these are some common questions any work at home mom or entrepreneur would think of and if you aren’t experienced and need a starting point, this will work.
What is your business?
What is it that you will actually do or provide with your work at home business? Don’t over look this step, be precise in your summary and write or type it out. Work at home moms need to critically think and summarizing your business will raise questions or provide you with need to know information before you set sail. If it takes you a month to answer this one question, don’t worry because businesses take time and work at home moms can’t act quickly, most of us are already working with a limited budget in the first place. One of the most common mistakes some work at home moms make is rushing into a business or a home-based business opportunity to quick without thoroughly researching it first.
How will your business operate?
This is really a broad question, especially if there are many different ways you will operate your business so you may need to make a list summarizing each venue of operation. Let’s use one work at home mom as an example– Kim is a crafter from her home where she designs and makes her own original craft pieces for children and families. Let’s look at some of the ways Kim plans to operate:
* Kim of course will operate her base from home.
* Kim doesn’t have a budget for advertising and uses the following as ads.
a. Family and friends
b. Word of mouth
c. Referrals
d. Business cards
e. Commercial website
f. Internet classified ads
g. Affiliate programs
h. Ad banner exchange programs
i. Flyers
j. In home parties
k. Newspaper press release
It’s simple to see the ways in which Kim will operate her business; the bulk of her customer base will be from the Internet and from local clients. This is nowhere near a complete business plan but this is a rough start to give you an idea.
What type of equipment will you need?
This is a biggie for lots of work at home moms! To be successful don’t fill out a “wish list”, what type of equipment will you “need.” Need is a pretty big word considering it only consists of four letters. Evaluate what you currently have, estimate the life expectancy, any repairs or operational costs you see in the near future and there’s only one question to seriously ask yourself at this point, will the equipment do for now? If you don’t need it, don’t buy it. List the equipment you have with an operational cost for each based on your estimates of work you will do at start up. If you are already providing a service from your home locally, expect to do somewhere between 10-20% more in the beginning or even less. Don’t underestimate what you have.
What is your work at home budget?
It’s a good idea to periodically check your business plan to make sure you’re staying on track with your budget. If you aren’t staying on track with your budget, then your whole business plan could be in danger. What’s the use of drawing up a plan you can’t conceivably do? It’s smart to figure out no only your initial start up budget but also all of the costs associated with monthly maintenance of your business. Let’s just say that as long as you had five customers, your business would be okay and the average clientele you have is about a dozen customers, that’s not bad. If you need twenty customers to maintain your business and currently have ten, you should seriously re-think.
Work at home moms are going into business everyday but if you ask any particular one that has been in business for a long time just how they got started, each will tell you that they began with lots of planning. It’s always a good idea to hook up with another work at home mom who is experienced and can help give you advice from a “been there, done that” stand point. The work at home mom community is a great source of information, each stay at home mom helping another but make sure the work at home mom you listen to is successful before you follow any suggestions or invest your families money because with a lot of research and the creation of a work at home business plan, you too can succeed.
